There was talk at the start of the match that young all-rounder Washington Sundar’s absence due to injury may hurt the chances of Jones Tuti Patriots. It did not in any way, as Patriots found another man in M. Kaushik Gandhi.
The 28-year-old skipper from Chennai hammered a brilliant unbeaten 111 that was solid enough to see the new-look team get past VB Kanchi Veerans by 48 runs in the Sankar Cement TNPL at the ICL Sankar Nagar grounds here on Sunday.
Kaushik was obviously delighted having scored his maiden TNPL ton. He paddle-swept medium-pacer R. Silamabarasan to the fine-leg fence when on 97 and quickly turned towards his mates in joy.
The celebration said it all, and the crowd acknowledged his effort with a good round of applause.
It was an innings of great character and class, and his stroke-filled knock came off just 68 balls and contained 13 hits to the fence and three over it.
The young man’s previous best was an 86 at MAC in Chennai last year.
Kaushik, on his way to the century, also stitched two vital 50-run stands with S. Dinesh and later with Anand Subramaniam (37, 27b, 2x4, 1x6) that saw the team post 191.
Chasing a rather stiff target, Veerans lost opener S. Siddharth early. Vishal Vaidhya (33) and B. Aparajith (29) showed signs of fighting back with a 56-run stand for the second wicket but off-break bowler Malolan Rangarajan and paceman Athisayaraj Davidson applied the brakes with double picks that came at the right time to seal Veerans’ fate.
The scores: Jones Tuti Patriots 191 for three in 20 overs (Kaushik Gandhi 111 n.o., Anand Subramaniam 37) bt VB Kanchi Veerans 143 for nine in 20 overs (K. Vishal Vaidhya 33, B. Aparajith 29, Subramanian Siva 33, Malolan Rangarajan two for 31, A. Davidson two for 32, Akash Sumra two for 23).
