PANAJI: Naroo Panthers scored their second successive victory in the Zooter Goa Super League, while Estilo Legends bounced back after opening day’s loss, with a 30-run victory over Retro Strikers at Panjim Gymkhana ground here on Sunday. The day also saw the second consecutive defeat for the Strikers and first loss for Baale Tigers.
Estilo Legends, who had slumped to a 12-run loss to Baale Tigers on Saturday in a low-scoring affair, won the toss and batted first with an aggressive mindset. A fantastic partnership of 69 runs for the second wicket between opener Sachin Sardesai (40 off 23 balls; 4×4, 2×6) and allrounder Aditya Naik (36 runs off 29 balls; 3×4) set the tone for the Legends to pile up the highest total of the league so far at 189/9. Skipper Saheel Dhuri scored a quickfire 36 off 21 balls (3×4, 2×6) while Chandrakant Ghadi delivered a fiery 33 off 15 balls, which included five boundaries and a sixer.
Amlon D’Souza was the most successful bowler for Strikers, picking up 3/26. Team owner Balkrishna Hodarkar, Siddharth Ghanekar and Sunny Kamat took one wicket each.
Retro Strikers, who had gone down by 28 runs to Naroo Panthers on the first day, failed to build partnerships at the top of their innings as wickets fell regularly. Basu Madar had the rival batters dancing to his spinning deliveries as he bagged the top three wickets, reducing the Strikers to 38/3 in the seventh over. Towards the fag end of the innings, Siddharth Ghanekar (27 off 14 balls; 4×4, 1×6) and Pranav Biche (28 off 16 balls, 5×4) provided the much-needed acceleration, but it proved to be too little too late to change the course of the match as the Strikers were all out for 159 in 19.1 overs. Swapnil Malik (19), Balkrishna Hodarkar (17), Amlon D’Souza (15) and Nikit Dalal (14) were the other notable contributors with the bat.
Estilo Legends’ Aditya Naik, who also picked up two wickets, was named the man of the match. Vinod Wilson and Vinay Palekar took two wickets each while Saheel Dhuri picked up one wicket.
Later in the day, an excellent bowling performance by man-of-the match Mrunmay Das (4/14) proved instrumental as Naroo Panthers beat Baale Tigers by 26 runs in the Zooter Goa Super League at Panjim Gymkhana ground, here on Sunday evening.
Naroo Panthers won the toss and batted first to post a challenging total of 160/7. In reply when Baale Tigers were just about roaring back into the contest after a disastrous start that left them reeling at 25/4 in 4.1 overs, Mrunmay broke the crucial fifth-wicket partnership by picking up the wicket of dependable Kiran Shirvoikar (34 off 24balls; 2×4, 3×6).
Kiran and Dhilan Shah (27 of 31balls, 2×4) had hauled the Tigers into a promising position by the half-way stage at 80/5 in 10.5 overs by virtue of a 55-run stand off 40 balls. The Naroo Panthers left-arm spinner then went on to pick the wickets of Dhilan, rival skipper Naresh Parsekar and Dattesh Priolkar to run through the Baale Tigers middle and lower order. Sayed Badi’s blistering 37 off 20 balls (3×4, 2×6) provided some entertainment but could not take the Tigers to the target as they were all out for 134 in 18.3 overs.
Earlier, Vishwajeet Gaonkar with run-a-ball 38 and Siddhesh Alvenkar (29) put on 46 runs for the third wicket before captain Mukhtar Kadri provided the acceleration with a strokeful 35 runs off 20 balls (6×4, 1×6) as Naroo Panthers put up a decent batting performance. Shishir Divkar played a beautiful cameo of 10-ball 23, which included five boundaries.
Baale Tigers bowlers Kiran Shirvoikar (2/22), Sayed Badi (1/19) and Tushar Narvekar (1/14) were amongst the wickets.
