Kings hold nerve to beat Super Gillies

Kings scored 137/7 in 20 overs, courtesy a late surge by the tail-enders and in reply Chepauk Super Gillies could only manage 126/9 in 20 overs.

The win took Kovai Kings to six points in four matches, while the Super Gillies stayed at four points in four matches.

Kings skipper J Syed Mohammed called right at the coin toss and elected to bat first. The Kings were off to a horrid start in the second ball when opener L Suryapprakash lofted Rajagopal Sathish to a wide mid-off where J Gowjith Subash made no mistake.

Sathish struck again for the Chepauk Super Gillies in the fifth over when S Tarun Srinivas miscued a pull to short mid-on. The breakthrough came at a time when Srinivas and Anirudh Sita Ram, who had put on 28 off 22 balls by then, were looking dangerous.

X Thalaivan Sargunam showed his brilliance in the field yet again when he timed his throw to perfection to catch R Rohit well short of his crease. At 47/3, the Kings had themselves in a spot of bother.

Ram then combined with skipper Mohammed and the duo stitched a 42-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Gillies pacer Yo Mahesh Kumar had another bad day at office when he conceded 11 runs in his only over.

It was then R Sai Kishore’s turn to give some hope for the Super Gillies fans in the 14th over when he invited Ram down the track only to find wicket-keeper K H Gopinath remove the bails in a flash. The left-arm spinner bowled his second maiden over of the league, the first of the match. At 89/4 in 14 overs, Chepauk were happy with their bowling performance.

Sathish then sent S Harish Kumar back to the hut with a stupendous direct-hit and W Antony Dhas sent the Kings skipper back with a peach of a yorker that uprooted the middle stump.

Just when it looked like Gillies had taken the upper hand in restricting Kings to a sub-par score, M Mohammed and M K Sivakumar stitched an unbeaten 28-run partnership in 13 balls to lift the Kovai Kings to a competitive 137/7.

Chepauk Super Gillies came started on a steady note after the break as openers Gopinath and Thalaivan scored at almost run-a-ball in the first six. Gopinath was the first to go, in an attempt to accelerate the scoring, when he advanced to left-arm spinner S Ajith Ram, only to find the wicketkeeper Rohith make no mistake behind the wickets.

The pitch, already in use for almost 70 overs by then, had slowed down and Thalaivan and S Vasanth Saravanan found the going tough. The Kings deployed a tight line and gave nothing away as the Super Gillies batsmen were cramped for room.

Medium-pacer Harish and Ajith bowled excellent spells in the middle overs and the former accounted for Thalaivan and Sathish in the space of three balls. Vasanth and U Sasidev stitched a useful 22-run partnership off 15 balls and once both departed, Chepauk were in a spot of a bother.

Gowjith and Dhas then joined together for the seventh wicket and scored at a marauding pace. Subash took the arial route and plundered 18 runs off M Mohammed’s third over, the 17th of the innings to give a glimmer of hope for the Super Gillies.

The two scored 34 runs in 16 balls, bringing the Super Gillies’ second fifty in less than six overs in the process, but a mix-up ended Subash’s stay at the crease. With 28 needed from 16 balls, it was upto Dhas to lift the Gillies out of trouble.

The Gillies needed 27 from 12 balls with three wickets in hand and Sivakumar bowled a brilliant penultimate over giving away two runs and picking two wickets to spell doom for the Super Gillies.