CHENNAI: Despite the experience of playing a high-pressure game in the past, defending champions Chepauk Super Gillies lost to Ruby Trichy Warriors by five wickets in the first qualifier of the TNPL 5 at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Tuesday.
Chasing 154 for a win to qualify for a place in the final was never going to be easy, but Trichy’s Nidhish Rajagopal and Aditya Ganesh cracked punishing half-centuries to set up a memorable win for their side.
Trichy lost three wickets in the powerplay. Thereafter Nidhish (55) and Aditya Ganesh (66 n.o) played with lot of understanding and stitched a valuable 93 runs for the fourth wicket. Nidhish started with a bang and towards the end when 17 runs were required he got run out.
Earlier, put into bat Chepauk Super Gillies (CSG) had a disastrous start losing both its openers cheaply.
Saravan Kumar picked both the prize wickets of Kaushik Gandhi and N Jagadeesan.
Thereafter S Radhakrishnan counter attacked Sarvan Kumar to reduce the pressure. He wacked Sarvan for a boundary and two towering sixes in a single over to show his intent.
Brief scores: Chepauk Super Gillies 153/3 in 20 ovs (S Radhakrishnan 82 n.o) bt Ruby Trichy Warriors 157/5 in 19.5 ovs (Nidhish Rajagopal 55, Adithya Ganesh 66 n.o).