TNPL 2023: The success mantra behind Ajitesh’s dream season
The Hindu
Ajitesh is one of the cleanest hitters in the tournament with a fast bat swing that has allowed him to top the boundary charts as well with 34 fours and 21 sixes. He was important in Nellai Royal Kings’ TNPL campaign.
Every edition of the TNPL has had an exciting player breakthrough with impactful performances and has graduated to the big league.
Be it T. Natarajan in 2016, Varun Chakravarthy (2018) and more recently, Shahrukh Khan and B. Sai Sudharsan. One of the finds this year has been G. Ajitesh, who has played a vital role in Nellai Royal Kings reaching the final.
The youngster was impressive even in his maiden season last year with useful cameos lower down the order (129 runs at a Strike Rate of 243), which was enough to get him into the Tamil Nadu T20 side.
On Monday, the 20-year-old continued his imperious form slamming an unbeaten 73 (44b, 5x4, 5x6) in Qualifier-2, his third consecutive half-century in addition to a century, all of which came in a winning cause.
It also took him to the top of the run charts with 384 runs (SR: 164.10).
“I had a different role than what I did last year, so I have been enjoying it, and I’m really happy that I could win so many games for the team,” said Ajitesh, who has been batting in the top-order this season and has grabbed the chance with both hands.
For someone who is not muscular, Ajitesh is one of the cleanest hitters in the tournament with a fast bat swing that has allowed him to top the boundary charts as well with 34 fours and 21 sixes.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.