Naroo Panthers and Baale Tigers notched up victory in their respective matches on the opening day of the inaugural Zooter Goa Super League cricket tournament at Panjim Gymkhana ground on Saturday.
Naroo Panthers beat Retro Strikers by 28 runs in the first match of the day before Baale Tigers scored a narrow 12-run victory over Estilo Legends in the second match.
Put into bat, Naroo Panthers posted a challenging total of 174/6 with handsome contributions with the bat led by Vishwajeet Gaonkar (38), Ilyas Naroo (36), Siddesh Arora (33) but the most telling knock came from the man-of-the match Siddhesh Alvenkar down the order. Batting at No 6, Siddhesh struck two sixers and three boundaries in his 18-ball 33 before he was out stumped off the bowling of Avadoot Amonkar (3/27) in the last over of the innings thus bringing the momentum into the Panthers camp.
In reply, Retro Strikers lost wickets in a heap and were reduced to 68/5 in 9.1 overs before Avadoot Amonkar unleashed a flurry of big hits in his 35-run knock of 21 balls, which included three sixes and two boundaries. With the rule of retiring after a batter reaches the 35-run mark being implemented, the former Ranji Trophy star had to leave the centre-stage while the Strikers were coming back into the game at 112/5 in 13.4 overs. However, all-rounder Siddhesh Alvenkar then got two quick wickets and snuffed out the remaining fight in the Strikers camp as they were restricted to 146/9 with Siddharth Ghanekar remaining not out on a valiant 24 off 11 balls (2×4, 2×6). Mrunmay Das was the pick of the Panthers bowlers with figures of 3/21 of 3 overs.
Later on the opening day, Baale Tigers, who won the toss and batted first, were all out for 133 runs in 18 overs with the most expensive player of the league Sayed Badi showing his mettle with a quickfire 37 runs off 20 balls, which comprised four boundaries and two maximums. Tushar Narvekar scored a run-a-ball 21 (2×4), Sunil Rathod with 19 runs and team owner Ashwin Chandiok with 14, were the other contributors. The overall batting line-up, however, failed to produce a substantial momentum as wickets went down at regular intervals and would be mighty disappointed not to even bat out full 20 overs.
Estilo Legends skipper Saheel Dhuri (3/14) was the pick of the bowlers while Basu Madar and Dattaprasad Shirodkar took two wickets each.
In reply, Estilo Legends got off to a shaky start but the third-wicket partnership of 26 runs between Shailesh Miskin (18) and team owner Dr Sagar Salgaocar (16) consolidated to build a platform for the chase.
The Legends were in the hunt till dependable batter Chandrakant Ghadi was at the crease but the Goa Police cricketer reached 35 runs in 30 balls (3×4, 1×6) and had to make the walk back to the pavilion with his team placed at 102/7 in 17.1 overs. With the asking rate going beyond 11, the Legends found it tough to keep up and were all out for 121 in 19.2 overs. Baale’s Kiran Shirvoikar and Naresh Parsekar took two wickets each while man-of-the match Badi, Jamir Carol, Hemant Khot and Dhilan Shah picked up a wicket each.
