PANAJI: Manas Panjim Gymkhana will clash with Salgaocar Cricket Club while Chowgule Sports Club will take on Geno Sports Club in the semi-finals of Bandodkar Premier T20 cricket tournament on 19th April at Panjim Gymkhana ground.
In the last two group matches played on Thursday, Manas Panjim Gymkhana outplayed second-placed Geno SC by 56 runs to top Group B with two wins in two matches; after Chowgule Sports Club went down by 25 runs to Dempo CC and yet qualified for the last-4 stage with the top spot in Group A due to a better net run-rate. Salgaocar finished second in Group A. Dempo with one win and Alcon MCC, who lost both their games, failed to progress to the knockout stage.
Manas Panjim Gymkhana won the toss and batted first to post 158/8 with a host of batters getting to a brisk start. Azaan Thota scoring 28 runs of 18 balls (3×4, 1×6), was their top run-getter, followed by Dhrumil Matkar (26 off 20 balls), Rajshekhar Harikant (24), captain Snehal Kauthankar (18) and Tunish Sawkar (15). Manas and Kaushal Hattangadi were the chief wicket-takers for Geno with three and two wickets respectively, to their name.
In reply, Geno had a disastrous start and lost half their side for 41 runs in seven overs before being skittled out for 102 runs in 14.3 overs. Sanath Nevagi with 23 and Sagar Vantamuri with 17 runs to their names, were the notable contributors down the order. Manas PG bowlers ruled the roost with Tanay Thyagarajan, player-of-the match Dhrumil, Shubham Tari and Shubham Desai picking up two wickets each.
Earlier in the day, Chowgule won the toss and opted to field first in the must-win game for Dempo, who had to make up for Wednesday’s big loss to Salgaocar by winning by a certain margin to lift their net run-rate.
As such, Dempo showed the aggressive attitude right from the start and scored 60 runs in the power-play stage. However, they could not maintain the scoring rate throughout their inning, but managed a decent total of 174/8. Captain Manthan Khutkar struck six boundaries and a sixer on his way to an elegant knock of 55 runs off 36 balls. He combined with player-of-the match Akash Parkar (22) for a crucial fourth-wicket partnership of 52 runs, which provided the backbone to the Dempo total.
Chowgule bowlers Mohit Redkar (2/22) and Krishna Thakur (2/37) did a good job by striking at important junctures even as the fielders put in an ordinary shift barring one or two brilliant moments like the stunning diving catch by Sparsh Jain to send back a dangerous Sagar Mishra (18 off 11 balls; 2×4, 1×6).
In reply, Chowgule SC lost opener Kashyap Bakhle in the first over itself but recovered to get back on course with 39 runs partnership between skipper Samar Dubhashi and Shivam Amonkar (22). Samar, who scored a smashing unbeaten half-century in the last match to take his side to victory over Salgaocar, looked to repeat the show as he raced to 29 runs which included three boundaries and one sixer before Parkar (3/24) got the prized wicket to end Samar’s 18-ball stay at the crease with Chowgule score being 41/2 in 4.1 overs.
Although the scoring rate was not an issue for Chowgule, their batters seemed to make too many errors in the choice of their shots when sensible cricket was required to reach the target.
After Divyansh played a blinder of a knock of 40 runs in just 18 balls (4×4, 3×6) following Veer Yadav’s 13-ball 23, Chowgule were in the driver’s seat at 118/4 in 11.4 overs with 57 runs needed in 50 balls. Yet, the batters to follow including Ranji Trophy player Mohit Redkar failed to apply themselves and paid the price for it as the entire team was bowled out for 149 in 17.3 overs. Dempo bowlers worked hard with Rohan Bogati taking 3/18 while Fardin Khan picked up 2/32.
