TNPL 2016 | Chepauk Super Gillies beat Karaikudi Kaalai

Opting to bat first, Chepauk accelerated from the third over as the pitch continued to assist batsmen. Mohan Prasath dismissed Thalaivan Sargunam and got the first wicket. Also, Shanta Moorthy gave away 22 runs in the sixth over as Gillies ended the power-play at 67 for 1. S Saravanan was dismissed by Sonu Yadav as the latter picked up four wickets.

Rajkumar later dismissed Yo Mahesh but then Gillies skipper R Sathish (46) fought back with a flurry of strokes. Shahjahan then dismissed Gopinath (43) when the latter looked in pristine touch. Suresh Babu, who gave away 37 runs in three overs, was taken to the cleaners by Sathish and U Sasidev. Satish and Sasidev stitched a partnership of 50 before the latter holed out to Srinivasan at midwicket off Yadav.

Meanwhile, Vijay Kumar (46) played well to knock off runs and contributed to the 69 runs in the power-play. That was the only bright spot for Karaikudi as Vijay Kumar’s wicket led to a run-drought and also saw the back of skipper Badrinath. R Alexander (3 for 28) and Sai Kishore (1 for 23) bowled in tandem and choked batsmen of runs. Dhas, introduced in the 13th over, struck with the very first delivery as Kaalai lost half its team with only 104 runs on the board.