Dindugul: Dindigul Dragons sealed a place in the playoffs by beating defending champions Chepauk Super Gillies in a one-sided affair at the NPR College ground in Natham (Dindigul) on Friday.
Dragons outplayed Gillies in all three departments to sign off the league phase with a thumping nine-wicket win. After restricting the defending champions to 120, Dragons, led by Narayan Jagadeesan, batted magnificently to register their fifth win in seven outings to move to the top of the points table.
It was Gillies\92 sixth loss in seven games and they bring up the bottom of the eight-team competition. Put in to bat, Gillies reached a confident 60/2 in eight overs before Dragons stormed back by dismissing skipper KH Gopinath (25) in the very next over.
Dragons struck at regular intervals and held some exceptional catches to bundle out the opposition in 19.3 overs. A Aarif (36) waged a lone battle.
Left-arm spinner R Silambarasan took three wickets in his final over to finish with 3-16.
Reflecting on the loss a dejected Chepauk Captain said that their batting was very poor throughout the tournament ‘In the two games against Jones Tuti Patriots and VB Kanchi Veerans we got a good start and because of that, we could set a good target but we failed to get good starts in the previous matches which was our mistake.
We lost the first four games and lost our opportunity to make a comeback. Momentum in this tournament is very important, and three to four overs can change the game completely,’ he said.
For Dindigil, skipper Jagadeesan hit an unbeaten 63 (43b, 7×4, 3×6) as Dragons closed out the chase with 39 balls to spare. The other opener Hari Nishaanth played a stroke-filled 34.
“Lot of credit should be given to the bowlers. We wanted to show intent on the field and it came out well. We are peaking at the right time, it is important for us to be doing well now,” said Jagadeesan who was adjudged Man of the match.