Natham, July 25: Ramadoss Alexandar’s determination to come good for Chepauk Super Gillies in the Sankar Cement Tamil Nadu Premier League is already paying off, if his display in the first two matches in Season Four are any indication. In two matches, he has picked eight wickets conceding just 20 runs.
The 23-year-old left-arm spinner had a lean season in 2018 with just three wickets from five matches and his team also did not fare well as they finished at the bottom of the eight-team league.
The opening match of the tournament this season also did not begin on expected lines for CSG as they lost by 10 runs to last year’s finalists Dindigul Dragons. Alexandar’s performance of 4-0-11-3 was overshadowed by DD left-arm spinner M Silambarasan (3-0-13-4).
The defeat rankled him and Alexandar was fired to give his best in CSG’s next game against Ruby Trichy Warriors at the ICL-Sankar Nagar ground, Tirunelveli. He did it in exemplary fashion by claiming the first four RTW wickets and ended up with the best bowling analysis in TNPL history (4-0-9-5).
It was the hunger to succeed that led to this display, he says. “I was hungry to do well. I took just three wickets in five games last year despite taking 20 wickets in the previous two years. I was ashamed that I was a main bowler and I did not perform last season. So, I think it is the hunger to do well this season that has led to this performance,” he said.
Senior batsman of CSG, KH Gopinath revealed he has been bowling well in practice sessions and an in-form Alexandar augurs well for the team. “He is really coming up well this season. He was doing good in the first two editions of TNPL but unfortunately we had a bad season last year. Now he is coming back again. It is a good sign for the team,” said the 31-year-old top order batsman.
In the first season of TNPL, Alexandar took 10 wickets in eight matches and picked the same number of wickets in the following season when CSG won the title. Overall, in 25 TNPL matches he has picked 31 wickets.
Alexandar credits the experienced players of the team Vijay Shankar, Murugan Ashwin and coach Hemang Badani for providing all the encouragement for him to bounce back.
“It has been a plus point that Vijay Shankar, M Ashwin or someone as experienced as Hemang Badani sir share their experiences with me and I learn from them. For instance, I have asked M Ashwin a lot of times about how to deal with certain situations. Like, if a batsman plays a certain way, I ask him how to bowl to him. He shares his ideas.
“Hemang sir has been a major motivation factor. He has never been harsh to me. If I don’t perform well, he only aims at making me play better. He has been very understanding,” he said.
Even in the game against Ruby Trichy Warriors, captain Kaushik Gandhi spurred him to attack and not be bothered about conceding runs. “I was instructed by the captain to take wickets and not worry about the runs. So, picking wickets was the only thing in my mind and I did it,” he said.
It also resulted in his first five-wicket haul but it was the victory for CSG that brought him more joy. “For the first time I got the man of the match award and I feel very happy about it. More than the five-fer, I am happy that the team won,” he said.
CSG, who had scored 148-6, won the match by 41 runs after restricting RTW to 124-9 in 20 overs.
CSG will take on iDream Karaikudi Kaalai in Tirunelveli on Friday and Alexandar will be hoping to come good again.
