TNPL 2016, Chepauk Super Gillies vs Madurai Super Giants, Preview and Predictions: Gillies aim to seal spot in playoffs

TNPL 2016, CSG vs MSG, Preview and Predictions: Gillies aim to seal spot in playoffs

In what is an important game for Chepauk Super Gillies in the TNPL, they will be up against Madurai Super Giants at the NPR College Ground at Natham on Saturday. Giants, who play two afternoon games on consecutive days, have huge task at hand to beat Gillies. Of course, Gillies are the favourites for this one as they gained confidence thanks to a close win over table-toppers Dindigul Dragons in their previous game. That six-run win at Natham ensured that Gillies would in all probability qualify for the play-offs. They were superb in both batting and bowling and also made comebacks during crucial moments. ALSO READ: TNPL 2016: RKW beat MSG by 7 wickets to knock them out of tournament

Their openers had a good game as Gopinath continued his run-scoring spree, and Thalaivan Sargunam also hitting form at the opportune moment. But the middle-order is an area of concern and Gillies will aim to fix it before the business end of the tournament starts. Even their bowling needs improvement as they left it till the last over to win against Dragons. Antony Dhas, who had a good start to the tournament, will aim to regain his wicket-taking form. Even R Alexander and Sai Kishore – the two left arm spinners – will be crucial in the later stages. It may be noted that the left-arm spinners are having a gala time so far in the tournament.

Also, R Sathish, who opens the bowling for Gillies, has been magnificent and will hope to continue his good form. Giants on the other hand have had a forgettable tournament without a single win to boast for. Despite taking a few games to the end, they have not been able to push past the winning line. It may be noted that prior to the game against Gillies, they also have one against Ruby Kanchi Warriors, on the same venue. And a loss will end their play-off hopes for good! ALSO READ: Videos: In India for TNPL, ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle, ‘DJ’ Dwayne Bravo accorded grand

Despite having the maximum number of district players, Giants have been a disjointed outfit as they failed to click in neither of batting, bowling or fielding. Also, a major cause of concern is the inconsistent form of their openers, as good starts have not materialized in to big scores. But then Giants now have an excellent chance to play party-poopers in their remaining matches! An interesting tussle may pan out between the left-arm spin duo of Sai Kishore and R Alexander against Arun Karthik. The veteran batsman is an aggressive player and likes to go for the big shots right from the word go, and it will be interesting to see as to how he handles spin

Giants skipper Shijit Chandran is confident of his despite his loss against Warriors on Friday. However, he is disappointed that his key players are not performing. Karthik, Suresh Kumar and Rokins have been unable to chip in runs at crucial times. Chandran expects other players to step up as well apart from a single player being a hero.

Post match, Chandran spoke about the positives he will be taking from here on and said, “We have been fielding really well and the only negative is that we are not consistent. We have done well in patches. Even today we started well in the first ten overs only to lose the plot later on. Even during bowling, they played well in the first five overs after which we bounced back.” ALSO READ: Watch a ‘furious’ Ravichandran Ashwin play mediator as street fight breaks out in TNPL match

Now that Giants have no scope to move ahead in TNPL, Chandran is happy to play his bit as captain and will want to get better with the role in terms of decision making.

Meanwhile, Gillies Thalaivan Sargunam is happy with his form and is looking forward to better it in the coming matches. Jagadeesan has been the star of Gillies in TNPL and Thalaivan feels Jagadeesan is taking each game as it comes while his bowler Sai Krishna is very aggressive and will need to play controlled innings in the upcoming matches.

Gillies have faced terrible middle-order woes. Speaking on the them, Thalaivan mentioned, “Look, everyone has chipped in with the bat right from game one. Sati (R Sathish) also has scored in the lower-order and Sasi (Sasidev) has also played well in a couple of games. Everyone is good in touch. As we played 15 to 16 overs in this contest, the others had to get over right from ball one. The situation was such that they had to go for the shots.”

Now that Giants are out of TNPL, this game pretty much is a dead rubber. There is nothing to lose for Giants while Gillies will give their all out to stay in TNPL and bring their A game ahead to secure berth in play-offs. With the play-offs beginning next week, the next few games becomes crucial in every manner.

Squads:

Chepauk Super Gillies : Gopinath (wk), Thalaivan Sargunam, Sathiamoorty Saravanan, Rajagopal Sathish (c), Uthirasamy Sasidev, Jothimani Gowjith Subhash, Yo Mahesh, Antony Dhas, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, R Alexander, Dakshinamoorthy Kumaran, Arun Kumar, Joel Joseph, Aditya Barooah, S Karthik, Ashwath Mukumthan, Baskaran Rahul, Rajeel Abdul Rahman, V Shibi Jawahar, SI Vasudevan, PS Nirmal Kumar

Madurai Super Giants: Singamuthu Thiyagarajan, Arun Karthik (wk), Shijit Chandran (c), P Francis Rokins, Suresh Kumar, Pitchaiayan Sakthi, Maan Bafna, Lakshminarayanan Vignesh, DT Chandrasekar, Muruganantham, Edward Kennedy, Andrew Subikshan, C Madhu, Varun Narender, Ganapathi Vignesh, M Raja, R Mihir, S Aswin Kumar, Palani Amarnath