TNPL | Gillies thrash Giants to put one foot in play-offs

TNPL | Gillies thrash Giants to put one foot in play-offs

no photo

|

© TNPL Media

Chepauk Super Gillies took one step into the India Cements TN Premier League play-offs as they thrashed Madurai Super Giants by 55 runs at the NPR College Ground at Natham on Saturday.

Brief scores: Chepauk Super Gillies 178 for 5 (Thalaivan Sargunam 73, 46b, 7x4, 4x6, R Sathish 57 not out, 27b, 2x4, 5x6, Ganpathi Vignesh 2/28 Muruganantham 1/13) beat Madurai Super Giants (Arun Karthik 34, 28b, 2x4, 1x6, Sai Kishore 3/12, Antony Dhas 2/1) by 55 runs.

It was another horrendous display from Giants who are yet to notch up a single win in the league. Giants’ run-chase unfolded the same way as it has been throughout the tournament as they got off to a good start thanks to Arun Karthik and Ganpathi Vignesh. But the departure of Shijit Chandran meant that Giants’ batting fell like a pack of cards. Sai Kishore was the wrecker-in-chief as he led the way for the Gillies, and every bowler except R Alexander picked up a wicket each.

The importance of the left-arm spinners was highlighted in this contest as batsmen from both teams had it difficult facing spin. U Sasidev’s super catch at mid-on off R Satish was another highlight of the Gillies’ bowling. The rest of the batting couldn’t add much to the score as Giants’ misery continued.

Earlier, Gillies, who won the toss and opted to bat first, didn’t have a great start as Gopinath fell to Raja early on after he handed over a simple catch to Anton Andrew at mid-on. Muruganantham then struck a second blow as he disturbed Gowjith Subhash’s furniture. Vasanth Saravanan and Thalaivar Sargunam concentrated on punishing the loose deliveries and tried to rebuild the Gillies’ innings. 

Their 65-run partnership was finally broken by G Vignesh when Saravanan’s attempted sweep fell to M Raja at short-fine leg. Though Muruganantham and Edward Kennedy controlled the run-rate well in the middle overs, credit goes to Sargunam, who held one end firmly. He completed his half-century - his second in as many games - and he joined forces with skipper Sathish to accelerate the score towards the end of their innings.

Sathish was harsh on Ganpathi Vignesh, as the former smashed two sixes and a boundary in the 19th over. Sargunam later was out trying to accelerate, but then the pair had already added 71 runs in just 38 deliveries. Sathish was particularly harsh on the Giants’ bowlers as he smacked five sixes in his unbeaten knock of 57. Gillies hit 74 runs in the last four overs of their innings, which propelled them to set a challenging total of 178 on board.

*Report courtesy TNPL Media

Get updates! Follow us on

Open all