Dream debut for Mukundhan as Gillies power into semi-finals

Mukundhan’s five-for is the second in the league and the first by a debutant in the league. Mukundhan’s figures of 5/17 is the best in TNPL, nudging ahead of Tuti Patriots’ Laxmipathy Balaji’s 5/18 against the same opponents in Natham.

The win cemented Chepauk Super Gillies’ place in the semi-final. The Veerans will now be dependent on other results and net run-rate in their quest for a berth in the semi-finals.

Chepauk batted first and scored 154/3 while the Veerans could only manage 113/9 in 20 overs.

Electing to bat first, Chepauk Super Gillies got off to a good start when K H Gopinath hit Abhishek Tanwar for a six in the fourth ball of the innings. Tanwar could have got his man two balls later when Gopinath missed the line and was castled, but Tanwar had overstepped.

X Thalaivan Sargunam continued from where he left off in Natham by carting Rahil Shah for a six over long-on and Chepauk were off to a flyer.

Gopinath made the Veerans pay for the mistake with sublime stroke making. He worked the ball to the leg side off his hips and timed his shots brilliantly in the cover region.

Baba Aparajith introduced Lakshmi Narayanan into the attack and the change eaped rewards as Thalaivan lobbed an easy catch back to the bowler. S Vasanth Saravanan (54 in 36 balls) joined Gopinath (62* in 55 balls) in the middle and they sent the Veerans on a leather hunt with an 86-run partnership in 11 overs.

Once the power-play ended, the Veerans tightened the grip on the match with accurate bowling. R Rohit and Sanjay Yadav managed to keep the batsmen quiet and gave no boundaries away for more than five overs.

A full-toss from Yadav broke the boundary drought when Saravanan timed it neat into the deep square leg boundary. Gopinath sent Samuel inside out in the cover region while Saravanan slog swept Samuel to the mid-wicket fence for maximum and Super Gillies got their rhythm back.

Saravanan was out against the run of play in the 16th over when he tried to cut Rahil but ended up playing uppish to Aparajith at short cover. The Veerans skipper was back in action soon when he took a splendid low diving catch to send his opposite number Rajagopal Sathish for no score.

U Sasidev joined Gopinath and the duo averted more tragedy with an immaculate display of shots. Sasidev wasn’t afraid to use his feet to the spinners and timed accurately as Super Gillies got 42 runs in the last five overs to finish at 154/3.

The break did a world of good for the Super Gillies as they came all guns blazing with the ball. Debutant fast-bowler Mukundhan was on the money from ball one when he induced a nick from R Kavin and Gopinath pouched to an easy catch behind the wickets.

A twin-strike by Mukundhan in his second over, the team’s fourth, pegged the Veerans back. He first had C Hari Nishanth lofting a full length ball to Yo Mahesh at mid-on and took the prized scalp of Aparajith when Thalaivan dived to his right at covers to take the drive. At 11/3, Veerans were in big trouble.

It soon became 19/4 in the seventh over when Tanwar dragged his foot out in an attempt to block left-arm spinner R Alexander only to find Gopinath dislodge the bails in a flash.

Yadav and N S Chaturved tried to put on a partnership for the fifth wicket but Yadav stepped out and drove on the up only find Mukundhan take a good diving catch at extra-cover. At 37/5 at the half-way stage, Veerans had their backs to the wall.

Malolan Rangarajan joined Chaturved and the former got into the act almost immediately when he punched R Sai Kishore off the back-foot for four. Chaturved then sent Alexander out of the park over long-on and just when Veerans were getting some runs, Alexander removed Chaturved when he was caught by W Antony Dhas at deep covers off an inside out drive to reduce the Veerans to 63/7.

Rohit and Malolan tried to salvage some pride for the Veerans with some lusty blows but once Mukundhan came back to bowl his fourth over, it was business as usual for the speedster. He first trapped Malolan in front when the batsman tried to hit across the line and Samuel skied one to the long-off to wrap a memorable debut for Mukundhan as the Veerans finished at 113/9.

Brief scores: Chepauk Super Gillies 154/3 in 20 overs (Gopinath 62*, Vasanth Saravanan 54, Lakshmi Narayanan 2/31) bt VB Thiruvallur Veerans 113/9 in 20 overs (Rohit 34, Malolan 23, Ashwath Mukundhan 5/17).