Shahrukh Khan | Kovai captain: We are happy with the boys. We showed our fight. The match was lost in the middle overs. Specially, the wickets get slower when you play down south. Only fair to swallow the bitter pill. I had a sore shoulder with a freak injury. I tried to push my limits to play for the team. The team comes first. We have two departments and I have the responsibility of leading the side.
The great Rahul Dravid is in attendance to give away the awards. Shivam Singh was presented the Orange Cap. M Poizamozhi was given the Purple Cap. Shahrukh Khan quite fittingly won the Player of the Tournament award. Earlier, Ravi Ashwin was given the Player of the Final award. No surprises there. But like Ashwin, barring tonight, SRK was every where for his team. He scored runs and picked up 13 vital wickets in the tournament.
Varun Chakravarthy: One month back we won the IPL now the TNPL. Wonderful franchise and they rightly deserve this win. We have a very good bowling unit, Ash anna is there, Warrier and Subodh Bhati is there and it's good to deliver on the promise. I have worked on my batting and Ashwin anna has acknowledged that too.
Cheena | Dindigul batting coach: Ashwin said that at the start he will open, initially it did not click, we lost a couple of games, after that he decided to open and it clicked.
Kedar | Dindigul support staff: It feels amazing, very hard to put into words. We have been chasing this for 8 years, 6 years we have qualified for the playoffs, twice we lost in the final and finally we have made it.
Sarath Kumar: Before we left the room today for the game, Ashwin anna had a meeting and he told us tonight there will be a Jonty Rhodes in our side. If we win, Ashwin is the first to praise us, so it's OK when we make a mistake he has every right to scold. His name is enough.
Shivam Singh: Amazing, I can't express it in words. [on Ashwin] A legend like him playing TNPL so hard is an inspiration for us. His batting bowling and captaincy, he was on his toes all through the tournament, seeing him we had to push and he was unbelievable. TNPL is one of the best platforms for the youngsters or anyone - if you play well, you will get noticed.
Baba Indrajith: Very happy, after the back to back losses against CSG, everyone discussed back in the dressing room that we wanted to be at Chepauk for the final. It won’t be right to dedicate this to any one person, everyone contributed from the management to the captain Ashwin leading from the front. It has been a complete team effort. (On P Vignesh) He is a great character, Ashwin backed him throughout in the nets. He didn’t do well the first few games, but Ashwin backed him and he has delivered in these knockout games.
The batting of Kovai was supposed to make the difference. But Vignesh picked up Sai and SRK was little injured. That almost handicapped the Kovai side. The score of 129 was never going to be enough and that was the case. It is a different matter that Ashwin once again made the difference with the bat. His sweeps shots weren't coming off tonight. He didn't look that fluent but he kept going and took them very close before getting out. Stay tuned for the flash interviews and the post-match presentation...
23:22 Local Time, 17:52 GMT, 23:22 IST: Third time lucky for the Dragons.
18.2
Shahrukh Khan to C Sarath Kumar, SIX, and it's all over! Dindigul win by 6 wickets with 10 balls to spare. Sarath has played a superb cameo . That was a tossed up delivery, C Sarath Kumar looked to slog sweep it and sent it over long-on. Firstr
18.1
Shahrukh Khan to Boopathi Kumar, 1 run, nudges one behind square for a single as the ball angled in
Shahrukh Khan [2.0-0-23-1] is back into the attack
17.6
V Yudheeswaran to C Sarath Kumar, no run, and it will go into the
17.5
V Yudheeswaran to Boopathi Kumar, 1 run, to backward square leg,