- June 8, 2025
In a match that had all the excitement of a TNPL thriller, Trichy Grand Cholas appeared set to make their stamp on the 2025 season. Their top and middle-order managed 157, and they had Nellai looking a little uncomfortable for some time. But as the Coimbatore evening wore on, it became clear that Nellai Royal Kings had much more composure, intention, and punch. Trichy certainly did not collapse—the difference was that they got outmuscled. Here’s why the Grand Cholas fell short in a battle they could have won.
A Late-Innings Freefall that Killed Momentum
Trichy’s innings were set to explode but ended up fizzling out. After 15.4 overs at 120/3 with Waseem Ahmed and Jafar Jamal in, it was reasonable to assume they might score 170+. A late-innings meltdown saw Trichy lose their grip in dramatic style. They lost five wickets for just 37 runs – the last three of which fell as consecutive balls from in the 19th over; three in a row from 19.3 to 19.5 – ruining Trichy’s momentum as they chased runs in the death overs.
The downfall was peculiar, but Sonu Yadav ensured it was complete, removing batters with surgical precision in the death overs to return figures of 3 for 22 from 3 overs. Their final five batters scored a total of 5 runs, and all of a sudden, a total of 157 didn’t look like an especially monumental score. Does death overcome stage fright? Absolutely. Trichy froze up at the worst time.
NS Harish—The Silent Assassin Strikes
Forget the raucous fireworks, NS Harish provided controlled mayhem! First, with the ball, he strangled Trichy in a pivotal stage of the middle with just 14 runs in his 3 overs and the prized wicket of Waseem Ahmed – Trichy’s top run scorer, and later he transformed it into an otherworldly finish. At 109 for 5 and the game slipping away, Harish stormed in with intent, hammering 35 from 22 balls, laced with 5 fours and a six.
His controlled savagery primed Trichy with disastrous bowling and severe nerves. While his fellow batsmen crumbled around him, Harish was frozen and unconcerned. This was a genuine player-of-the-match performance as he stole Trichy’s spotlight and made a chase of 158 into a very gentle cruise!
Trichy’s Bowling Lacked Bite and Balance
It wasn’t just one poor over—it was a chain of small failures all through Trichy’s bowling card. Their main pacers, Davidson and Saravana Kumar, gave up 61 runs in 5 overs. Davidson and Kumar had economy rates near or over 12; Mukilesh’s 3/23 and Sanjay Yadav’s 1/21 in 3.2 overs gave some hope, but no one else applied pressure to the batting team. The expectation that the batting side would buckle under whatever pressure was applied did not come true.
Add to that the trouble in the powerplay from Arun Karthik (41 off 21) and Santhosh Kumar (45 off 35), and suddenly Trichy’s bowlers were always on the back foot. It is this inability to find lengths or lines on a good surface for batting, and the too-late effort, to execute yorkers or slower balls in the last few overs, which made an already chalked list of failures that much longer.
This was not a mauling, it was an account of how a good start can go to waste when you lack finishing skills and fail to execute under pressure. Trichy Grand Cholas had their moments—Waseem’s innings, Mukilesh’s clever spell—but they were bettered by better batting, sharper death bowling, and one NS Harish, who walked in like a whisper and walked out with the match ball.
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