Analysis for the match.

The top two sides from the group stage, Nellai Royal Kings and Chepauk Super Gillies, go head to head in Qualifier 1 on Wednesday evening in Salem. The Royal Kings finished top of the table with six wins and one defeat. The Super Gillies won five and lost two. Read on as we preview this game. The match gets underway at the Salem Cricket Foundation at 19:15 local time.After a hard fought bout of league matches, we are finally at the stage in Tamil Nadu Premier League 2022 that we were all waiting for. We are now left with just knockouts and all these remaining matches carry significant importance being an important checkpoint in the road to the finale.

Up next in the tournament, we have the first qualifier set to be played on 27th July 2022. The match is to be played between Nellai Royals Kings and Chepauk Super Gillies at the Salem Cricket Foundation Ground, Salem. The winner of this match will move to the grand finale whereas the losing team will move to feature in the second qualifier.

Must see points.

1). Nellai Royal Kings are coming into this match on the back of six back to back wins and will be brimming with confidence

2). The Royals Kings have a slightly better-balanced side between the two, at least on paper

3). Chepauk Super Gillies are a little too over-reliant on only a few players to deal the bulk of the damage

Head to Heads.

Overall Matches - 6

NRK won - 2

CSG won - 4

N/R - 0

Last five Head to Heads.

NRK won - 2

CSG won - 3

N/R - 0

Match Predictions - NRK to win the match.

1). If NRK won the toss and opted to bowl first, CSG could score 150-170 runs.

2). If CSG won the toss and opted to bowl first, NRK could score 160-170 runs.

Secondary Predictions.

1). Sanjay Yadav total runs - over 24.5 runs.

Sanjay Yadav is the leading run scorer in the 2022 Tamil Nadu Premier League and the batter has scored over 150 runs in his last two innings. He is our tip for Nellai Royal Kings’ highest run scorer in this game.

2). Uthisaramy Sasidev total runs - over 22.5 runs.

Uthisaramy Sasidev scored 45 not out from 29 balls against IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans and we are backing him to be Chepauk Super Gillies’ highest run scorer in this match.

3). Most sixes in the match by a player - Sanjay Yadav.

With 32 sixes in this campaign, no other player comes close to matching Sanjay Yadav’s ability to clear the boundary. He is our prediction for the Player to Hit The Most Sixes in this play-off game.

Match Preview.

Nellai Royals Kings finished as one of the better sides in the tournament and will want to build on the momentum they garnered in the league stage. Having lost just one match in the entire league stage, they were arguably the best side leading upto the knockouts.

At the end of the league stage, the Royals finished with six wins out of seven matches coupled with a net run-rate of 1.312. Their net run-rate of 1.312 shows how dominant they were in the league stage. They are coming off a spectacular winning streak of six matches and will be raring to go in the knockouts as well.

On paper, the Kings have a spectacularly balanced side that has so far performed to its potential big time. They have an excellent amalgamation of youth and experience that has done incredibly well up until now. Also, their top-order has been in beligerrent form and will be difficult to deal with even for the best in the business. All the Kings will need to do is to play to their potential and if they can do that, getting past them could prove to be incredibly difficult.

Chepauk Super Gillies have been one of the most fluent and consistent sides over the years in the history of the competition. They have continued to maintain their form and reputation this season as well and were evidently one of the better sides at the end of the league stage.

The Super Gillies lost only a couple of games in the league stage and will be brimming with confidence coming into this match. Also, they were the only side to fetch two important points from the hands of Nellai Royal Kings and that should boost their confidence further coming into this match. At the conclusion of the league stage, they finished with ten points to their name with an excellent net run-rate of 1.093, which proved to be vital in their qualification.

The Super Gillies have some exceptional players available at their disposal who all were fantastic in the league stage. The same would be expected of them going into the knockouts as well. On paper as well, they have a fantastic team that is known to thrive in pressure-cooker situations. The same would be expected of them in this match as well and if they are able to play to their potential, getting past them could prove to be incredibly difficult.

Match details.

Time - July 27th, 07:15 pm, IST.

Venue - SCF Cricket Ground - Salem, India 

Pitch reports.

The temperature will be in the high 20s during this match although there is a strong chance of rain interrupting the contest at some point.Three of the last four completed games in Salem have seen between 16 and 19 wickets fall. We expect to see another pitch which favors the bowling units.

Team News.

Nellai Royal Kings>>

Jitendra Kumar was left out of the side for the final group stage game with Rooban Raj coming in for his second appearance of the campaign. Raj got a golden duck and it would be a surprise if he retained his place in the middle order for this fixture.On Saturday, the Royal Kings lost their first match of the 2022 TNPL. However, they had won every game previously in this campaign.

Possible XI - Sri Neranjan, Laxmesha Suryaprakash, Baba Aparajith, Sanjay Yadav, Baba Indrajith (c) (wk), G Ajitesh, Rooban Raj, M Shajahan, NS Harish, Athisayaraj Davidson, Easwaran

Chepauk Super Gillies>>

After beating bottom of the table Salem Spartans by 7 wickets with 31 balls remaining in Match 22, the Super Gillies made one change to their line-up. 40 year old Arun Kumar was left out after taking 1-22 in his only appearance of the season with Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore coming back in and taking 4-2, including three maidens.The Super Gillies have won five games on the bounce after beginning their defense of the 2021 title with successive defeats.

Possible XI - Kaushik Gandhi (c), Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Radhakrishnan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Rajagopal Sathish, Sonu Yadav, Uthirasamy Sasidev, Harish Kumar, Manimaran Siddharth, Ramadoss Alexander, Sandeep Warrier