R. Alexandar (five for 9) bowled a deadly spell as Chepauk Super Gillies coasted to a comfortable 41-run win over Ruby Trichy Warriors in the Sankar Cement-TNPL at the ICL grounds here on Tuesday.
The left-arm spinner from Ramanathapuram picked up the first five-for of the season, which incidentally also turned out to be the best in all editions of the TNPL so far.
Earlier, Warriors’ decision to field appeared right at the start as Gillies opener Kaushik Gandhi was dismissed in the third over with the just eight on the board.
Missed chance
He would gone in the first over itself had Aditya Barooah not dropped a sitter at point off pacer L. Vignesh.
However, Kaushik failed to cash in on the chance and perished in similar fashion to the same bowler.
In walked a confident-looking K.H. Gopinath (37, 25b, 4×4, 2×6), who did not wish to wait and, true to his team’s favourite catchphrase ‘Pattaiya Kelappu’ (turn it on), belted boundaries and smashed a couple over the ropes to bring about the fifty partnership in quick time for the second wicket with Ganga Sridhar Raju. However, the duo did not last long. K. Vignesh and Sai Kishore, the left-arm spinners, sent the two back in the space of just five deliveries.
It looked a difficult climb from there for Gillies, but S. Harish Kumar had other ideas. He came up with a quickfire 39 (23b, 1×4, 4×6) and figured in a vital 56-run stand off just 37 balls with M. Ashwin to see the team post a respectable 148 for six.
Bearing the brunt
Pacer P. Saravana Kumar bore the brunt for bowling loose deliveries to Harish in his second spell in which he gave away 21 in an over.
Gillies was quite pleased with the score and it must have been all the more happy as India star M. Vijay, who did the bulk of the scoring in the opener, did not figure in the line-up for reasons not known.
His absence was clearly felt as Warriors crumbled like cookies to Alexandar, who disguised his deliveries well to rattle the top order. His mates did the rest.
The scores: Chepauk Super Gillies 148 for six in 20 overs (Ganga Sridhar Raju 26, K.H. Gopinath 37, Harish Kumar 39, Saravana Kumar two for 39) bt Ruby Trichy Warriors 107 for nine in 20 overs (Aditya Barooah 29, G. Periyaswamy two for 34, R. Alexandar five for nine).
Wednesday’s match (at Natham): VB Kanchi Veerans vs iDream Karaikudi Kaalai (7.15 p.m.).
