TN Premier League: Tuti trash Chepauk by 45 runs in the first game

After some sizzling performances from the celebrities, the inaugural edition of TNPL kicked off with the Tuti Patriots thumping down the home side Chepauk Super Gillies by 45 runs.

Tuti Patriots elected to bat first on winning the toss. The Indian U19 star Washington Sundar had the TNPL going with a single towards square leg region off Chepauk Captain Rajagopal Sathish’s bowling on the first ball. Kaushik Gandhi on other end, took on the likes of state’s senior pacers Tamil Kumaran and Yo Mahesh smashing them for sixes. Sathish brought an end to Gandhi’s cameo of 20 which came in 11 balls by trapping him in front.

Sundar kept the ship steady with some classical boundaries as Tuti raced to 46/1 at end of powerplay. However, Sathish bowling his 4th straight over turned out to be a fruitful tactic for his side as Sundar holed out after scoring a 23-ball 24. Sathish’s economical figures read 4-0-16-2.

Runs dried up after openers’ departure, resulting in Maaruthi Raghav’s dismissal, who hit straight to deep square leg fielder off Antony Dhas. Dinesh Karthik paced his innings after a slow start. He shared a 47-run stand with Sushil in 6.2 overs for 4th wicket. With couple of sixes in penultimate over bowled by Kumaran, Karthik brought up his fifty in 42 balls. He struck a six and four in final over bowled by Yo Mahesh and led his side to 164/5 in 20 overs. Karthik remained unbeaten on 67 off 49 balls with 3 fours and 4 maximums.

Tuti’s left-arm spinners Ganesh Moorthi and Aushik Srinivas gave breakthroughs for their side by dismissing the openers early. Thalaivan Sargunam kept his side in the chase by scoring quickly. Chepauk were moving well at 62/2 in 9th over, but in spare of 7 balls the scoreboard read 63/6. Sargunam got out to a brilliant catch at covers by Washington Sundar. Soon on the next ball, Surma cleaned up Sasidev for duck.

The next over bowled by Lakshmipathy Balaji seen Sarvanan getting dropped at deep square leg. After the drop, Balaji sent back Chepauk’s captain Sathish and Rahul for first ball-ducks in consecutive balls.

Super Gillies managed to bat till 20th over before they were bowled out for 119, falling short of the target by 46 runs. Aushik Srinivas and Akash Surma picked up 3 wickets each.

Brief Scores:

Tuti Patriots: 164/5 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 67*, Umashankar Sushil 25; Rajagopal Sathish 2/16) beat Chepauk Super Gillies: 119/10 in 19.4 overs (Thalaivan Sargunam 29; Akash Surma 3/14, Aushik Srinivas 3/23)