We wanted to keep wickets in hand: Sathish

Hence, their first plan before the final against Tuti on Sunday was to keep the wickets intact and both of them were happy that their plan worked at the right time. “In the four games against them we had lost quick wickets. If we lose wickets, we lose the momentum. So we thought we would have wickets in hand, but still we finished with one over to spare. They bowled a couple of tight overs, but we played with a cool head,” said Rajagopal Sathish after the match.

The captain said he and Vasanth Saravanan played together for 25 years and knew who should be the target when they batted. ‘We just wanted to have wickets in hand. Hemang (Badani) told us we were in the boat and we had a good plan, which worked,” he explained. 

Chepauk Super Gillies coach Hemang Badani admitted he was tense when Anthony Dhas dropped that catch of Washington Sundar in the first over. “We dropped Washi (Sundar) in the last game, we dropped him at Tirunelveli where he got a 100. I was just going back to the Tirunelveli episode and saying ‘Dei not again!’ But thank God we got back into the game. It was a clinical game. It was a wicket which was slightly slower than it looked, and the game went up and down, but the biggest plus for us that we played three left-arm spinners,” the coach reflected. 

Badani was happy that experienced campaigner Vasanth Saravanan, who had lean run in the tournament, came good at the right time, in the final. “Vasanth Saravanan hasn’t had a great tournament with the bat, but you can’t ask anything more from him. They all stepped up in the big game, took it upon themselves to finish the game. Both Vasi and Sathish got two crucial sixes. Vasanth just finished the game in that Washington over. We thought he would take the game to the next over, but he was trying to make a statement saying he would take on the best bowler and he did that. Let’s also not forget Gopinath’s contribution that set it up for us,” Badani added.