PANAJI: Dempo Cricket Club will clash with Karimabad Sports Club in the final of Bandodkar T20 League, on Tuesday morning here at Panjim Gymkhana at 10.30am. In the semi-finals today, Dempo beat Chowgule Sports Club by 10 runs in the semi-final after Karimabad registered a 17-run victory over Salgaocar Cricket Club in the first semis.
The Dempo versus Chowgule match proved to be the most gripping contest of the last-four stage. Batting first on winning the toss, Dempo got off to a disastrous start losing the wicket of their captain Snehal Kauthankar and experienced wicket-keeper batter Keenan Vaz off back to back deliveries in the first over being bowled by Felix Alemao. And from that stage, Dempo were not just able to recover to respectability, but also mounted a heroic counter-attack to post a challenging total of 167/6.
Azeem Kazi (47) and Mukul Kasana (42) put together an invaluable partnership of 91 runs for the third wicket to lay a solid platform for the team to build on. Both the batters struck three sixers each to step up the run rate for Dempo, who found the going laborious in the first 10 overs with just 51 runs on the board. However in the second half of their inning, Dempo plundered 116 runs thanks to big-hitting Divyang Hinganekar (29 not out of 14 balls), who struck two sixes and two fours. Vikas Singh contributed 23 runs of 13 balls, while Malik Sirur got 12 runs of 7 balls with two fours in his knock.
Chowgule bowlers looked to be in control till the half-way stage but could not contain their opponents in the latter part of the inning. Felix and Sushil Burle took two wickets each.
In reply, Chowgule were restricted to 157/7 with Darshan Misal being the top-scorer with 50 off 31 balls. As long as the skipper was out in the centre, Chowgule seemed to be in the contest as the talented left-hander smashed three boundaries and two sixers to keep the asking rate in control. Along with Piyush Yadav (38 off 33), Darshan batted patiently in the initial part after quick loss of wickets of Rahul Mehta (34 off 21balls; 4×5, 6×1) and Eknath Kerkar (12). And the duo were in the process of accelerating when Darshan perished to change of pace by Divyang in the 17th over with 130 being the total score then. It also ended the fourth-wicket partnership at 72 runs. From there on, the Chowgule chase failed to recover and although Piyush continued to fight, Dempo were able to get the better of their opponents.
Harshad Gadekar was the pick of the bowlers with 3/22 to his name, Vikas Singh picked up two wickets but Divyang Hinganekar (2/33) and his crucial big-hitting cameo with the bat, earned him the man of the match award. Panjim Gymkhana committee member Tanmay Kholkar presented the award.
Earlier, Karimabad Sports Club defended a fighting total of 145/9 by bowling out Salgaocar Cricket Club for 128 in 19 overs. Left-arm pacer Rishabh Chaubey was the wrecker-in-chief as he bagged five wickets giving away 25 runs. He was named man of the match and Panjim Gymkhana treasurer Suresh Karapurkar presented the award to the outstation recruit for Karimabad.
Put into bat, Karimabad found it hard to get going straight away. Some of the batters got starts but wickets went down quickly after opener Azaan Thota was dismissed for 22 off 14balls (4×4). Tunish Sawkar 27 off 28balls (4×1, 2×6) also failed to make a big score like he had managed in the league stage. From being 83/4 in the 13th over, Karimabad recovered to 129/5 in 17.5 overs as Soham Panvlkar (40 off 31balls; 3×4, 1×6) and captain Deepraj Gaonkar (22) put on a partnership of 46 runs for the fifth wicket. However, Karimabad innings did not get much acceleration in the remaining balls as Salgaocar bowlers completed a good team effort in the field. Samit Aryan Mishra and Devdatt Chodankar took three wickets each, while Shubham Tari and Sagar Mishra got a wicket apiece.
Salgaocar’s chase got off to a shocking start as Rishabh dealt a double blow in the first over, picking up the wickets of captain Prathamesh Gawas and Yash Porob. With Sagar Mishra being Chaubey’s victim in the next over, Salgaocar never really recovered from there although Ishaan Gadekar was the lone warrior with the bat. The left-hander played fine shots in his 50-ball stay at the crease scoring 65 runs. Ishaan struck six boundaries and one sixer till he was stumped in a freak way, and there ended hopes of a comeback victory for Salgaocar. Aditya Suryawanshi looked good while he was at the crease contributing 19 runs.
Karimabad skipper Deepraj picked up two wickets while Rishabh Chauhan and Sachin Mishra claimed a wicket each as Karimabad scored a comfortable win in the end, defending a modest total with good all-round performance.
