Sohraab Dhaliwal brought up the first century of the ongoing Bandodkar Premier T20 tournament and powered Geno Sports Club into Thursday’s final. They will clash with Salgaocar Cricket Club, who notched up a fantastic team performance with captain Deepraj Gaonkar leading the charge with a brilliant bowling and fielding display in the semi-final victory over Manas Panjim Gymkhana.
In the semi-finals played at Panjim Gymkhana ground on Wednesday, Geno Sports Club scored an emphatic seven-wicket victory over Chowgule SC before Salgaocar CC shocked Manas Panjim Gymkhana by 17 runs.
The day started with Geno winning the toss and putting Chowgule into bat. A few quickfire contributions from the bat of Kashyap Bakhle (31 off 22 balls), Shubham Gajinkar (28 off 18 balls), Divyansh (28 off 22), Krishna Thakur (25 off 11 balls) among others, helped Chowgule to set a challenging total of 175/8. Geno’s Mayank Rawat took three wickets while Samit Aryan Mishra claimed two wickets.
However, a superb unbeaten century by Geno’s Sohraab Dhaliwal was the highlight of the match as the Madhya Pradesh List A and T20 batter, who is one of the two outstation players allowed in the playing XI, bagged the player of the match award.
The 31-year-old Sohraab smashed Chowgule bowlers to all parts of the ground as he rained eight eight sixers and six boundaries on his way to a chanceless 101 runs off 52 balls. With Sohraab in total control, Geno cantered to 178/3 in 15.2 overs.
Ishaan Gadekar played his natural attacking game, and provided Geno a good start despite early loss of a wicket. He scored 39 runs off 21 balls, which included five boundaries and two sixers. Mayank Rawat remained not out on 29 off 16 balls. Chowgule’s Krishna Thakur picked two wickets.
While the first semi-final was a one-sided affair, the second was a close contest where Salgaocar CC once again showed their tenacity and bounced back from a difficult situation to snatch victory.
Put into bat, Salgaocar looked headed to a modest total before lusty blows late down the order by Subodh Bhati (28 off 15 balls; 2×4, 2×6) and No 11 batter Lakmesh Pawne (10 off 3 balls; 1×4, 1×6) enabled the Vasco-based club to touch the 150-run milestone (150/9). Opener Amogh Desai top-scored with 38 off 28 balls, which consisted six boundaries. Aditya Suryawanshi contributed 27 while captain Deepraj Gaonkar was unusually quiet with his knock of 16 from 22 balls. Manas Panjim Gymkhana bowlers did a decent job with Achit Shigwan and Shubham Tari bagging three wickets each.
In reply, Manas Panjim Gymkhana seemed well in control despite losing wickets regularly until captain Snehal Kauthankar, who played superbly for his strokeful 44 off 34 balls (3×4, 2×6), was accrobatically caught by his counterpart Deepraj off his own bowling to turn the match on its head. Snehal and Ninad Rathwa were making a smooth progress and had added 33 runs for the fourth wicket in 24 balls to keep the asking rate in check. Ninad (29 off 21 balls; 3×4) followed his skipper soon after with Amulya Pandrekar taking a good catch at covers off Deepraj, who took three crucial wickets and was named the player of the match. Manas Panjim Gymkhana were all out for 133 runs in 19.3 overs. Salgaocar’s Atharva Ankolekar and Lakmesh took two wickets each while Subodh and Amulya claimed a wicket each.
