Chepauk Super Gillies captain Kaushik Gandhi was delighted after they defeated Dindigul Dragons by five wickets at the SNR College Cricket Ground, Coimbatore on Saturday.
The defending champions did well to restrict DD at 138 after Gandhi won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Dindigul Dragons got off to a horrible start as they lost three wickets for only 15 runs on the board. Ravichandran Ashwin promoted himself at one down but could only score 25 runs off 29 balls. Mani Bharathi scored a run-a-ball 37 while R Vivek scored a fine knock of 61 runs off just 38 balls.
Sonu Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for the reigning champions as he scalped two wickets and conceded only 19 runs in the four overs. On the other hand, Kaushik Gandhi scored a fine knock of 44 runs while N Jagadeesan scored 31 runs as CSG openers added 64 runs to give a perfect start in the run-chase.
Kaushik Gandhi said in the post-match presentation, “We are very happy with the win, puts us into a comfortable position on the table with two more games to go. Still a few areas to work on. It was his order, him not doing much in the previous game, felt he would be hungry and I wanted to use that to my advantage [on promoting Sonu Yadav]. The flexibility in the batting order helps us but I would’ve liked the set batters to have finished the game. The games come thick and fast here, tomorrow we will be resting and then start our preparations for the next one against Salem.”
Furthermore, Sonu Yadav also scored 26 runs from 18 balls after taking two wickets earlier in the match. Thus, Yadav was awarded the Player of the Match for his all-around performance.
Yadav said after the game, “They will feel happy as Sanjay is doing well too. Every day they call me [family] and ask me to do well, which gives more motivation. The break has helped us, we have rectified our mistakes and are doing well. The plan was to attack from the start and also to be flexible with the batting order.”
On the other hand, DD captain Ravichandran Ashwin admitted that they could not put enough runs on the board after they could only post 138 runs.
He said after the match, “We did not have a good day, it happens in T20 cricket, it follows you but with the kind of catches we put down, also we can say that the wicket did not grip as much as it did in the first innings. We did not bat well enough, we did not catch well enough, we did not deserve to win tonight. As I have kept harping on, game-awareness needs to come in, not so with this game and our side but in total around the league.
A little bit more adaptation, way too many shots has cost us when batting but we will learn as we go along.. It’s a good game for me. Right under pressure, bowled a no-ball to put myself under pressure. Probably 6 runs more would’ve helped at the end.”
