PORVORIM: Goa Ranji Trophy all-rounder Darshan Misal delivered a perfect captain’s performance to guide MCC to a 5-wicket victory over Mandovi Parivar Canacona in the final of Manohar Parrikar Trophy T20 Cricket Tournament, here on Saturday night. The tournament was organised by Yuva de Goa in association with Pilerne Cricket Club.
In a tight low-scoring encounter, Mandovi Parivar, who were all out for 116 in 19.3 overs after electing to bat; made MCC work very hard for almost every run till captain Darshan came to the crease and turned the complexion of the game. The 28-year-old hit five boundaries and three towering sixers in his unbeaten knock of 53 off 27 balls. Darshan also picked 2 wickets earlier and effected a run out to script a total display befitting a professional and was named the man of the match.
MCC started the run chase confidently with Suraj Dongre (14) and Manthan Khutkar putting on 23 runs before Suraj was out caught behind in the fourth over off the bowling of highly-talented Goa all-rounder Deepraj Gaonkar. Manthan was then clean-bowled by Sherbahadur Yadav as Mandovi Parivar started to claw back in the game. A charging Deepraj then returned to knock back Aditya Suryawanshi’s stumps and also log in his second consecutive wicket-maiden over.
MCC were reduced to 36/4 when Saish Kamat went for a needless lofted shot and was caught off the bowling of off-spinner Avishkar Mone in the ninth over.
In came Darshan with the match poised on the knife’s edge and he began the rebuilding phase in the company of Kaushal Hattangadi (17). The duo broke the shackles in the 10th over with each one of them hitting a boundary off left-arm pacer Abhishek Singh and nine runs came of that over. The following over saw Darshan cream an uppish drive through the cover region evading the diving Snehal Kauthankar. Nine runs came off this over too as MCC breathed a little easy with Darshan in particular, looking in control.
The MCC captain manufactured a stunning boundary in the square-leg area as he stepped out to Sherbahadur to take the team score to 67 in the 13th over. The experienced left-arm spinner hit back with a vital breakthrough for Mandovi Parivar by disrupting the furniture of Kaushal and breaking the blossoming partnership.
At 67/5 in 13 overs, Shubham Desai joined Darshan in the centre with the final still in the balance.
Mandovi Parivar were still giving it their all with a lot of fans travelling from Canacona, beating the traditional drums to egg on their team as left-arm spinner Amulya Pandrekar found great rhythm to bowl a very economical spell while runs came at the other end. He however missed a great run out chance off his own bowling with Shubham scampering for for a tight single.
With 41 runs required in 30 balls, Deepraj was back in the attack. But this time, MCC found a way to score runs off him as Darshan improvised to get a boundary down the leg side. Eight runs of this over brought the equation further down.
Darshan decided to go big in the next over, hitting two consecutive sixers over the mid-wicket boundary off Sherbahadur, who gave away 15 runs in the 17th over. The match was now totally in the bag for MCC with run-a-ball 18 required. Shubham remained unbeaten on 16 and in company of Darshan, who finished the game with a sixer, played his part in guiding the team to victory with an unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership of 52 runs as MCC reached 119/5 in 18.2 overs.
Earlier, Mandovi Parivar lost wickets in a heap to lose their way just past the half-way stage of their innings.
After the early loss of opener Avishkar Mone’s wicket, captain Snehal coming in at No 3, joined Kashyap Bakhale and the duo batted sensibly to keep the scoreboard moving. Mandovi Parivar were 41/1 at the end of power play and 64/1 at the half-way stage.
Snehal was the aggressor in the second wicket partnership that yielded 71 runs. He struck five boundaries in his knock of 40 runs off 37 balls. Kashyap also did very well with the bat especially his lofted shot off MCC captain and left-arm spinner Darshan was the shot of the inning as the right-hander dispatched the ball over the long-off boundary and onto the roof of the pavilion. He was the second wicket to fall after scoring 28 runs off 30 balls when on the second ball of the 12th over, Kashyap stepped out and tried to attack Shreyas Usgaonkar but only managed a leading edge to be caught at point by Saish Kamat. The talented leg-spinner then got the big wicket of Snehal in the same over as he mistimed one and was caught at deep mid-wicket by Nihal.
Mandovi Parivar never recovered from the double blow and lost two more wickets in the 13th over as Darshan bagged the wickets of a promoted Sherbahadur Yadav and Aniket Desai. With wickets falling in a heap, it seemed that the pitch might have some tricks up it’s sleeve and demanded more application from Mandovi batsmen.
All hopes of a decent total were now on Deepraj Gaonkar (15) and Karan Vasshodia but the hard-hitting all-rounder failed to make the most of a chance as Manthan Khutkar dropped him in the 15th over as the MCC fielder at short mid-wicket made amends to his error with a direct-hit running the quick Deepraj out, reducing Mandovi to 93/6 in the 15th over.
When Somesh Prabhudessai castled Robin D’Souza in the next over, all hopes of a late-order resurgence were dashed, as a capable batsman Karan was run out with good piece of fielding by Darshan, Mandovi Parivar were left in the shambles. A poor piece of cricket whereby assuming the ball would reach the boundary rope rather than doing the basics right of running between the wickets, Craig Dourado was run-out; ending the Mandovi Parivar inning with three deliveries to go.
MCC’s Shreyas Usgaonkar (2/35), Nihal Surlakar (2/11) and Somesh Prabhudesai (1/18) bowled well.
Goa Cricket Association president Suraj Lotlikar was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of other dignitaries. The winners received Rs 1 lakh along with the trophy while the runners-up were richer by Rs 50 thousand. Individual prizes awarded: Man-of-the Series: Deepraj Gaonkar. Best Bowler: Sherbahadur Yadav. Best Batsman: Aditya Kaushik. Best Emerging Player: Shreyas Usgaonkar.
