PANAJI: Prescon Panthers beat Manas Manas Mavericks by three wickets in the last league match of the 1st Panjim Gymkhana Members League (PGML) at PG ground, Campal here on Saturday evening.
With this victory, Prescon qualified for the knockout stage in the second position in the standings with six points but lesser run rate than Dempo Challengers. Both these teams will play the Qualifier 1 on Sunday morning. Manas Mavericks lost their third match of the PGML and thus finished at the bottom of the table with just one victory to their name. Due to a better run-rate, Baale Tigers, who also have two points from four matches, made it to the Eliminator against LPK11 while Manas Mavericks are out of the competition.
The final league match proved to be the most exciting contest of the PGML with Prescon Panthers captain Vivek Karapurkar turning on the style with a timely knock of 36 runs off 12 balls studded with four sixers and a boundary, to power his side to an important victory.
Chasing Manas Mavericks total of 135/8, Prescon Panthers required 50 runs off the last five overs with Karapurkar walking in at the crucial juncture. His strokeful knock ensured Prescon a thrilling win and broke Manas Mavericks hearts. Although Karapurkar, who was declared man of the match, had to leave the centrestage after crossing the 35-run mark, but the late-order duo made sure that they got the 7 runs required in the final over to cross the line.
Earlier, Manas Mavericks won the toss and chose to bat first. After a brilliant start with a couple of 43-run partnerships by the top-order batsmen, Manas failed to finish with a flurry and thus had to settle for a fighting score of 135/8 after scoring just twenty runs in the last five overs. Mahendra Pai Kuchelkar scored run-a-ball 32 with the help of five boundaries while Dattesh Priolkar contributed 30 runs off 23 balls. Sandeep Signapurkar 21, captain Ilyas Naroo 17 and Shailesh Miskin 10, were the other notable contributors.
Prescon Panthers staged a remarkable comeback of sorts while applying the brakes on Manas scoring following a fantastic catch of Miskin by Buddhadev Mangaldas, on the boundary rope. Buddhadev (3/18) then went to bowl excellently as he picked up the clueless batsmen with his well disguised slower ones.
Subhash Haldankar was the chief guest and gave away the man of the match award in the presence of Balu Phadke and other dignitaries.
Brief scores: Manas Mavericks 135/8 in 20 overs (Mahendra Pai Kuchelkar 32, Dattesh Priolkar 30; Buddhadev Mangaldas 3/18, Prajyot Rivonkar 2/14). Prescon Panthers 139/7 (Vivek Karapurkar 36, Smit Dalvi 35; Jamir Carol 2/12, Rajaram Kundaikar 2/28).
