TNPL 2018: Karaikudi Kaalai beat Chepauk Super Gillies by 47 runs

With only the top four teams qualifying for the playoffs, defending champion Super Gillies faces an onerous task of winning its remaining four matches to keep its hopes alive.

Setting off in pursuit of 194, it was imperative that Gillies got off to a flier.

Instead, it was off to a shaky start losing opener Ganga Sridhar Raju for nought off the innings’ second ball when Yo Mahesh had him caught behind.

Captain KH Gopinath (47) and U Sasidev (23) went about steadying the ship through their enterprising stand of 55 runs for the third wicket. But once the duo was separated, pressure started mounting and along with steep asking rate, any hopes of pulling off a near improbable win fizzled out.

Super Gillies needed 83 runs in the last five overs with not much batting to follow and Kaalai, through its disciplined bowling, ensured that it gifted itself a comfortable win.

Earlier, Karaikudi Kaalai put up a good batting effort to reach 193 for five against defending champion CSG. Kaalai captain S Anirudha had little hesitation in opting to bat after winning the toss and he got back to doing what he does best - smacking the ball with utter disdain and toying around with the bowlers, offering them no respite.

His partner V Aaditya played second fiddle and did the sensible thing by not trying to match him shot for shot. Super Gillies’ ploy of opening with spinners failed to yield the desired result as Anirudha batted with the same aggressive intent that he did in the previous match against VB Kanchi Veerans.

Anything that strayed onto his legs was neatly and mercilessly despatched into the stands. The script didn’t alter even when pace was introduced through R Vishaal in the third over as Anirudha greeted his inviting half-volley with a boundary over mid-off.

Through the course of his entertaining knock of 56 (28b, 4x4, 4x6), Anirudha earned the distinction of hitting the maximum number of sixes by any batsman in the three editions of TNPL.

Super Gillies bowlers were also guilty of bowling too many wides and no-balls and middle order batsman M Shahjahan was the beneficiary of one such no-ball when spinner R Alexander had him caught and bowled with him on zero only for the umpire to call it a no-ball.

The left-handed Shajahan then went on to score a brisk 43 off 20 balls consisting of four sixes and two fours.

In the last five overs, the Kaalai batsmen managed to score 54 runs to take their team closer to 200. None of the Super Gillies bowlers could make any impact as the highly rated M Ashwin conceded 42 runs in his quota of four overs.

Ashwin, though, took a brilliant catch at the long-on boundary to see the back of the dangerous Anirudha off B Arun.

Towards the end, Shajahan and R Srinivasan added 52 runs off 34 balls to set a competitive total for the Gillies.

BRIEF SCORES: Karaikudi Kaalai 193/5 in 20 overs (S Anirudha 56, M Shajahan 43*) beat Chepauk Super Gillies 146/6 in 20 overs (KH Gopinath 47, V Yo Mahesh 1/21)