In the curtain-raiser for the TNPL 2022, the title holders, Chepauk Super Gillies, clashed with Nellai Royal Kings in a nail-biting affair that went right down to the wire.
Let’s look at how the first match of the TNPL 2022 was played out.
Chepauk Super Gillies won the toss and asked Nellai Royals to bat first. The openers Laxmesha Suryaprakash (62 off 50) and Pradosh Ranjan Paul (7 off 9) could not give a good start to the Nellai Royals with the first wicket gone for just 10 runs.
The next two batters also faltered at the team score of 13 and 27. Sanjay Yadav, however, came up with a sensational 87 off of 47 balls with the help of five boundaries and six sixes, to take the team to a total of 184/4.
Chasing a huge total, the openers Kaushik Gandhi (64 off 42) and Narayan Jagadeesan (25 off of 15) were able to take the team score to 35 before the first wicket fell. The fall of wickets continued until Sonu Yadav (34 off 23) came and steadied the innings.
With 15 needed off the last over, it was S Harish Kumar (26 off 12) and B Arun (0) on whose shoulders the responsibility fell. The two batters, however, were only able to hit 14 from the last over and hence the game went to the super over. Sanjay Yadav with 4-27-2 was the pick of the bowlers from the Nellai side.
In the super over, the Chepauk team came to bat first but could only score nine runs from it with the help of a last-ball six. While chasing a target of nine runs, the Nellai team had achieved the score in just four balls and needed one from the last two.
That’s when the wicket of Baba Indrajith fell. The game went again to the last ball and this time the Nellai Royal Kings were able to achieve the target with a single at mid-on. The Nellai Royal Kings won the nail-biting first match of the TNPL 2022 by one wicket and made for a very high-quality cricket.
Nellai Royal Kings: 184/4
Sanjay Yadav: 87(47), Laxmesha Suryaprakash: 62(50)
Sanjay Yadav: 4-27-2, NS Harish: 4-41-1
Chepauk Super Gillies: 184/7
Kaushik Gandhi: 64(42), Sonu Yadav: 34(23)
Manimaran Siddharth: 4-30-1, S Harish Kumar: 4-30-1
Super Over:
CSG: 9/1
NRK: 10/1
