TNPL 2018: All round effort by Chandrasekar Ganapathy give Ruby Trichy Warriors 31 runs victory

Ganapathi Chandrasekar's inspired spell of fast bowling (5/19) paved the way for a second win on the trot for Ruby Trichy Warriors over defending champion Chepauk Super Gillies in the TNPL 3 here on Saturday. 

Thanks to his all-round heroics, Trichy defeated Super Gillies by 31 runs. Chandrasekar's first spell read an impressive 2-0-6-3 as he accounted for the crucial wickets of captain KH Gopinath, V Arun Kumar and S Karthik to scuttle the Super Gillies chase early on.

Indeed, Ganapathi couldn't put a foot wrong as in the 18th over he returned to dismiss M Ashwin and neatly effected a run-out of R Vishaal to take his team closer to the finish line. Reduced to 23 for three, Super Gillies struggled to recover and even a 62-run partnership between U Sasidev 31 (20b, 3x6) and B Rahul 53 (43b, 5x4, 1x6) for the fifth wicket failed to repair the damage up front as it eventually finished at 149 for nine.

Despite the steep asking rate and the mounting pressure, Rahul kept a cool head and notched up a deserving half-century but once he got out to Sonu Yadav trying to force the pace, it was curtains for the Super Gillies. Ruby Trichy Warriors plundered 71 runs in the last five overs to post a competitive score of 180 for four against defending champion Chepauk Super Gillies in the TNPL 3 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday.

Asked to bat first, Trichy Warriors got off to a brisk start with opener Bharath Shankar in a punishing mood against the left-arm spinner R Alexander as he blitzed 18 runs in the third over. His partner, B Indrajith, made a sedate start scoring his first boundary in the fourth over. 

Pacer R Vishaal provided the vital breakthrough when he got rid of Bharath Shankar caught by M Ashwin at mid-on for 23.

Super Gillies got another wicket soon when leg-spinner Ashwin dismissed the southpaw S Aravind for 1. At the completion of powerplay, Trichy was 47 for two.

Super Gillies' spinners choked the flow of runs in the middle overs as Indrajith and the first-match hero, S Suresh Kumar seemed content taking singles without playing any extravagant shots. The duo raised the 50-run partnership off 45 balls as Trichy crossed the 100-run mark in the 15th over.

It was then that Suresh shifted gears as he launched into the gentle medium pace of Sunny Kumar Singh pulling him for a towering six over square-leg. He reached his 50 off 37 balls with two fours and three sixes. The 19th over bowlers by spinner M Siddharth saw him conceding a whopping 25 runs as he erred in length pitching it too short for Suresh to whack him over the midwicket region for two successive sixes. Indrajith took cue from his partner and got to his fifty with a six over long-on off the same bowler.

Siddharth had something to smile about when he yorked Indrajith off the next delivery.

The new batsman Ganapathi Chandrasekar dealt in boundaries and sixes as a flurry of big hits flowed from his blade before he ended up scoring 26 off just 5 balls that consisted of three sixes and two fours. He creamed two sixes and two fours off the innings last over bowled by Vishaal.

Brief scores: Ruby Trichy Warriors 180 for four in 20 overs (Baba Indrajith 53, Suresh Kumar 74, Chandrasekar Ganapathy 26*) beat Chepauk Super Gillies (Baskaran Rahul 53, Chandrasekar Ganapathy 5/19)