PANAJI: Dempo Cricket Club scored a crushing seven-wicket victory over Karimabad Sports Club in an one-sided final of Panjim Gymkhana’s Bandodkar T20 League at Bandodkar grounds here on Tuesday afternoon.
Chasing Karimabad’s below-par total of 116/9, Dempo encountered minimal resistance as they cruised to 120/3 with two overs to spare and lifted the glittering trophy along with the cash prize of Rs 75,000. Karimabad Sports Club had to be content with cash purse of Rs 40,000 along with the runners-up trophy. The following individual prizes were also awarded: Man-of-the final: Vikas Singh, Player-of-the tournament: Divyang Hinganekar, Best bowler: Azeem Kazi (all of Dempo CC); Best batsman: Tunish Sawkar (Karimabad SC).
Sameer Kakodkar, grandson of late Bhausaheb Bandodkar – Goa’s first chief minister in whose memory the tournament is organised, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of Panjim Gymkhana secretary Rajesh Khaunte, joint-treasurer Narahar Thakur, PG Managing Committee members – Prashant Kakode, Girish Parekh, Tanmay Kholkar and Sarfaraz Sheikh. PG member & ex-GCA president Chetan Desai was also present.
Earlier, Karimabad opted to bat first on winning the toss, but they failed to turn up with their best in the title clash. Deepraj Gaonkar with 22 runs, was the top-scorer. The Karimabad skipper managed a couple of boundaries and a sixer in his 13-ball knock, which was not enough for his side to get a decent total on the board. Wickets tumbled regularly as no batter showed the resolve to make the most of the starts. The highest partnership of the inning, was for the ninth wicket as the No. 10 batter Lakmesh Pawne and Vedant Naik (11) put together 32 runs and took Karimabad close to the run-a-ball mark, which was never going to be enough though to trouble the formidable Dempo outfit led by Snehal Kauthankar. Nevertheless, Lakmesh showed that he could bat with two proper cricket shots – a sixer over the extra-cover boundary off Azeem Kazi and a four straight over the bowler’s head off Harshad Gadekar’s over, being the highlight of his 17-ball contribution of unbeaten 21 runs.
Dempo’s Vikas Singh was outstanding in the field as he took four catches – 3 on the boundary and one inside the circle, to cut short the stay of Karimabad batters Kashyap Bakhle (15), Azaan Thota (10), Soham Panvelkar and Rishabh Chauhan – all of whom had appeared to strike the ball crisply but could not get past Vikas, who also played a part in the run out of Vedant.
Vikas (2/18) delivered with the ball as well with his left-arm spin accounting for big wickets of Tunish Sawkar (12) and Deepraj, who were bowled and LBW respectively. The overall bowling performance by Dempo was excellent with Azeem Kazi being the highest wicket-taker with figures of 3/29; while Jagdish Patil (2/19) and Divyang Hinganekar (1/19) also did a fine job with the ball as Karimabad suffered a collective failure with the bat.
In reply, Dempo got off to a flying start with captain Snehal Kauthankar and Mukul Kasana putting on 74 runs for the opening wicket. Snehal, who scored 40 runs off 30 balls with 5 boundaries and a sixer, was the first wicket to fall as he was trapped plumb in front by Sachin Mishra in the 11th over. And when Mukul (35 off 39 balls, 4×2) departed off the bowling of Mishra in the 13th over, Dempo required 34 runs of 47 balls. Mishra bowled well and got the ball to move but by then Dempo had taken a vice-like grip of the final. Keenan Vaz (17) and all-rounder Vikas Singh (19 not out, 4×3) took their side to a sniffing distance before the Dempo wicket-keeper perished to a miscued shot, also off the bowling of Mishra (3/21). In-coming batter Yogesh Kauthankar remained not out on 3, as Dempo Cricket Club scripted a dominant display in the all-important final.
