Before the match got underway, there were talks that the absence of the young all-rounder Washington Sundar, who is injured, may hurt the chances of Jones Tuti Patriots.
But then, it did not hurt the side in any way as it found another man in M. Kaushik Gandhi.
The 28-year-old skipper from Chennai hammered a brilliant unbeaten 111, which was solid enough to see the new-look team get past VB Kanchi Veerans by 48 runs in the Sankar Cement Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) at the ICL Sankar Nagar grounds here on Sunday.
Kaushik was obviously delighted having scored his maiden ton in the TNPL. He paddle swept medium pacer R. Silamabarasan to the fine leg fence when on 97 and quickly turned towards his mates in joy. The celebratory mood said it all. The crowd acknowledged his efforts with a good round of applause.
It was an innings of great character and class, and his stroke-filled knock came of just 68 balls and contained 13 hits to the fence and three over it. The young man’s previous best was an 86 at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai last year.
Kaushik, on his way to the century, also stitched two vital 50-run stands with S. Dinesh and later with Anand Subramaniam (37, 27b, 2x4,1x6) that saw the team post 191.
Chasing a rather heavy target, the Veerans lost opener S. Siddharth early. Vishal Vaidhya (33) and B. Aparajith (29) showed signs of fighting back with a 56-run stand for the second wicket but off-break bowler Malolan Rangarajan and paceman Athisayaraj Davidson applied the brakes with double picks that came at the right time to seal Veerans fate.
The scores
Jones Tuti Patriots 191-3 in 20 overs (Kaushik Gandhi 111 not out, Anand Subramaniam 37) beats VB Kanchi Veerans 143-9 in 20 overs (K. Vishal Vaidhya 33, B. Aparajith 29, Subramanian Siva 33, Malolan Rangarajan 2-31, A. Davidson 2-32, Akash Sumra 2-23).
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