CHENNAI: N Jagadeesan’s hard-hitting 71 off 51 balls enabled Chepauk Super Gillies to defeat Lyca Kovai Kings by five wickets in the TNPL played at Coimbatore on Tuesday.
Jagadeesan's perseverance paid rich dividends as Chepauk registered their second win in the tournament.
Chasing 171 for a win, Chepauk caved into pressure and lost opener Kaushik Gandhi, S Radhakrishnan and U Sasidev cheaply. Jagadeesan took responsibility and waged a lone battle along with Sai Kishore who lent good support.
Kishore rose to the occasion and played a perfect foil to Jagadeesan. As long as the duo were there in the middle Chepauk was always in the hunt. Although Kishore (48) perished after stitching 92 runs off 59 balls for the fourth wicket with Jagadeesan, the latter took CSG closer home before R Sathish and S Harish Kumar finished the job.
Earlier, a captain’s innings of 51 not out by Shahrukh Khan paved the way for Lyca Kovai Kings to post 170 of 7 in 20 overs.
Shahrukh who has so far not played to the best of his ability was on song on Tuesday. He looked determined from the word to go and his shot selection was spot on.
Shahrukh looks best when he is aggressive and on Tuesday his timing was perfect as he carted Chepauk bowlers all over the park for five towering sixes to the delight of the crowd.
Earlier, Kovai had a disastrous start losing its opener Venkataraman cheaply. Thereafter Suresh Kumar and Sai Sudarshan combined well and stitched a partnership worth 61 runs for the second wicket to set a good platform for the lower order to exploit.
Brief scores: Lyca Kovai Kings 170/7 in 20 overs (Shahrukh Khan 51 n.o, Suresh Kumar 32) lost to Chepauk Super Gillies 171/5 in 18.5 overs (N Jagadeesan 75, Sai Kishore 48, Abhishek Tanwar 3/20).