Chepauk makes it three victories in a row

CHENNAI: Chepauk Super Gillies earned its third successive victory in the Tamil Nadu Premier League 2022 with a five-wicket win over Dindigul Dragons at the Sri Ramakrishna College Ground in Coimbatore on Saturday.

Electing to field first, double defending champion Chepauk came up with a disciplined bowling performance to limit Dindigul to a below par 138 for five. Chasing 139 to inch closer to a play-off berth, Super Gillies got home with four balls to spare. The Kaushik Gandhi-led Chepauk has secured six points from five matches while Dindigul is on four points from six fixtures and has only an outside chance of advancing to the top-four.

In the first essay, Dragons was in deep trouble at 15 for three in the fifth over after captain C Hari Nishaanth (1), Vishal Vaidhya (2) and RS Mokit Hariharan (6) were dismissed for single-digit scores. No.3 Ravichandran Ashwin (25), who turned out for the first time in TNPL Season 6, and Mani Bharathy (37 off 37 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) steadied the ship a bit with a 43-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

The big-hitting R Vivek (61 not out off 38 balls, 4 fours, 4 sixes) stole the show in the end overs by taking on R Sai Kishore and Harish Kumar. In the run chase, Kaushik (44 off 38 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) and Narayan Jagadeesan (31 off 30 balls, 3 fours) put on 64 runs for the first wicket.

Super Gillies suffered a middle-order collapse, losing four wickets for 46 runs, but had done enough early in the innings to get to its destination.

No.4 Sonu Yadav, who picked up two wickets earlier in the match, was dropped twice in an over and made full use of the reprieves to contribute an invaluable 26 (18 balls), a knock that was studded with three maximums. He was named the ‘Man of the Match’ for his all-round effort.

“We are very happy with the win. It puts us in a comfortable position on the table with two league matches to go. We still have a few areas to work on,” said Kaushik post the win.

“The flexibility in our batting order helps us, but it would have been better had the set batters finished the match for us,” added Kaushik.

BRIEF SCORES: Dindigul Dragons 138/5 in 20 overs (R Vivek 61*, Mani Bharathy 37, Sonu Yadav 2/19) lost to Chepauk Super Gillies 139/5 in 19.2 overs (Kaushik Gandhi 44, Narayan Jagadeesan 31, Sonu Yadav 26, K Monish 2/23)