PANAJI: Salgaocar Cricket Club and Geno Sports Club scored stunning victory in their respective matches in the ongoing Bandodkar Premier League T20 tournament organised by Panjim Gymkhana, here on Wednesday.
An electrifying unbeaten half-century by captain Deepraj Gaonkar led Salgaocar Cricket Club to a crucial 45-run victory over Dempo Cricket Club in the first match of the day. Later, a splendid half-century by Anand Tendulkar was at the core of a fine team performance by Geno Sports Club as they beat Alcon MCC by 24 runs to open their campaign with a victory. It was Alcon MCC’s second consecutive loss, thus dealing a blow to their chances of progressing to the knockout phase.
Salgaocar had suffered a comprehensive loss against Chowgule SC on the opening day. The win today, gives the Vasco-based club hopes of making it to the semi-final stage.
In a sort of must-win situation and with Dempo CC having the upper hand after grabbing early wickets, Deepraj displayed tremendous resilience to seize the initiative with a sensational knock of 23-ball 60 not out as he thumped the Dempo bowlers with Salgaocar CC racing from 98/4 in 13.1 overs to 189/5 in 20 overs. The talented Goa all-rounder dealt in sixers, plundering seven maximums, while hitting only two boundaries.
Dempo CC in their reply, failed to build momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Opening duo of Karan Vasshodia (22) and captain Manthan Khutkar (14) put on 33 runs for the first wicket in 3.4 overs. That was also the highest partnership for Dempo’s as their key batters failed to turn their starts into substantial contributions. No 3 batter Abhinav Tej Rana instilled a bit of urgency with four hits to the fence in his 14-ball stay at the crease. However, once he was caught in the deep for 24 runs, the Dempo chase failed to build the steam and went downhill before being restricted to 144/8. Sagar Mishra remained not out on 34 runs (2×4). Salgaocar’s Sujit Nayak, Amogh Desai and Srinivas Fadte took two wickets each.
Earlier put into bat, Salgaocar got off to a shaky start and required a cautious approach for the process of rebuilding with experienced opener Amogh Desai (30 off 33 balls, 4×4) and Sahil Makwana (24) putting on 42 runs for the third wicket. Hard-hitting all-rounder Sujit Nayak (43 off 30 balls, 6×4, 1×6), coming in at No 5, launched the counter-attack in the 45-run stand for the fourth wicket with Amogh, whose departure brought skipper Deepraj in the centre. Salgaocar CC went on to dictate the terms from there on as Deepraj went all guns blazing, changing the complexion of the contest. Dempo’s Fardin Khan took two wickets while Saiesh Kamat and Rohan Bogati picked up a wicket each.
In the second match of the day, Geno won the toss and batted first. The Mapusa-based club got off to a flying start with opener Anand Tendulkar blazing his way to 72 runs off 51 balls, in the team total of 188/5. In reply, Alcon MCC were all out on 164 in 19.5 overs as Geno bowlers displayed good all-round wicket-taking ability.
The highlight of the match, however, was the blistering knock of player of the match Anand, who recently paved the way for Dempo College’s triumph in the Goa University cricket final. The strokeful young batter launched two successive sixers to get going and did not look back as he went on to hit a total of five boundaries and five sixers in his entertaining stay at the crease. At the other end, the explosive Ishaan Gadekar also played his natural game to a certain extent before he departed after scoring 33 runs off 22 balls, which included three boundaries and two sixers.
The opening partnership of 78 runs off 9.4 overs set a brilliant foundation for Geno to build their skyscraper of a total. While Eknath Kerkar (21 off 17) and Gurinder Singh (21 off 15) tried to match the scoring rate, their progress was relatively slow. It required a cameo of 32 not out off 15 balls by Sanath Nevagi, who struck two sixers and three boundaries, to push Geno beyond the 180-run mark. Alcon MCC’s outstation recruit Sumit Kumar took two wickets while Deepak Punia, captain Darshan Misal and Vedant Naik claimed a wicket apiece.
In reply, Alcon MCC lost both their openers Prathamesh Gawas (15) and Digesh Raikar (10) inside five overs. Losing wickets at regular intervals fractured the momentum that was building after Deepak Punia (26) and captain Darshan (23) combined for the third wicket stand of 29 runs in 23 balls. After Darshan was caught by Ishaan off Gurinder (3/51), Alcon MCC were reduced to 86/4 in 11.1 overs. The situation went from bad to worse as Sumiran Amonkar took 12 balls for his 11 before being dismissed at the team score of 122/7 in 15.2 overs. However, Shourya Jaglan provided his team some hope with a string of big shots including two boundaries and two sixers before he perished for 26 runs off 12 balls, which eventually was not enough. Geno’s Samit Aryan Mishra, Manas and captain Harshad Gadekar took two wickets each.
