Pradosh Ranjan Paul got Chepauk Super Gillies to a winning start in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) with a swashbuckling 88 (55b, 12x4, 1x6) as the four-time champion breezed past Salem Spartans by 52 runs here at the Sri Ramakrishna College Ground on Tuesday.
Electing to bat, Super Gillies amassed a mammoth 217 for five, riding on Pradosh’s half-century, before R. Sanjay Yadav gave the innings a final flourish with an unbeaten 31 (12b, 2x4, 3x6).
Chasing a humongous target, Spartans never looked in the hunt and kept losing wickets, trying to keep up with the asking rate. Spinners B. Aparajith and B. Rocky ran through the Spartans’ top-order, scalping two wickets each, derailing the chase early.
Mohammed Adnan Khan, who walked in at nine, entertained the crowd with an unbeaten 47 (15b, 1x4, 5x6) as he launched into R. Rohit, hitting the pacer for four sixes in the 19th over. But it was too little too late for Spartans.
Earlier, skipper N. Jagadeesan (35) and Pradosh gave Super Gillies a rollicking start, flaying the Spartans’ attack all over the park as they stitched a 91-run stand. The stylish Pradosh produced an eye-catching knock filled with powerful sweeps and deft late-cuts.
After picking a few boundaries off the pacers, Pradosh went after left-arm spinner Ganesh Moorthi, sweeping him through midwicket before lofting him over long-on to help CSG finish the PowerPlay with 64 runs on the board.
The 22-year-old got to his half-century late-cutting Mokit Hariharan to the third-man fence.
Spartans’ skipper Abhishek Tanwar compounded his team’s woes with a horrid final over, delivering four no-balls as Sanjay smashed him for two sixes and a boundary, plundering 26 runs.
Comments
SHARE