PANAJI: Estilo Legends will take on Baale Tigers in the first of the Zooter Goa Super League semi-finals while Retro Strikers will play Naroo Panthers in the second, at Panjim Gymkhana on Sunday.
In the last day of the league-stage action, Estilo Legends staged a fantastic fightback to score a two-wicket victory over Naroo Panthers and topped the table by a narrow margin. Later on, Retro Strikers beat a severely-depleted Baale Tigers by six wickets to finish third in the table.
It was a dramatic start to the Matchday 3, where chasing Naroo Panthers’ total of 151/7, Estilo Legends looked in all sorts of trouble after being reduced to 42/5 in 10 overs but a sensational counter-charge by the likes of man of the match Shailesh Miskin, captain Saheel Dhuri and Basu Madar lower down the order propelled the Legends to the target of 152 in 17.2 overs with two wickets in hand while taking their team’s net run-rate above Naroo Panthers with both sides having won two matches each. Panthers finished second on the table.
Earlier, Naroo Panthers won the toss and elected to bat. They got off to a good start with Ilyas Naroo (37 off 30 balls; 5×4) and Vishwajeet Gaonkar (28 off 19 balls; 5×4) putting on 48 runs in the Power Play stage. The Panthers lacked aggression in the later part of their innings, but Siddhesh Alvenkar 38 off 34 balls (2×4, 1×6) played his part in taking his team to a fighting total. Captain Mukhtar Kadri scored 15 runs. Estilo Legends all-rounder Aditya Naik took two wickets while Vinay Palekar and Dattaprasad Shirodkar claimed a wicket each.
In reply, Legends struggled to start off with Paresh Miskin (12) being the only top-order batter to get to double digits before his younger brother Shailesh combined with Aditya Naik (30 off 28 balls) to launch the fightback with a stunning assault on Sapresh Mulvi, who conceded 28 runs in the 13th over. After Shailesh reached 35 off 12 balls, which included 6 boundaries and a six, in the game-turning sixth-wicket partnership of 40 runs of 16 balls; captain Saheel came to the crease and unleashed big blows all around the ground, to remain unbeaten on 32 off 12 (3×4, 2×6). Basu Madar displayed his tremendous power-hitting as he scored 24 runs off 8 balls with the help of three towering sixers and a boundary, and took his team to the top of the table and into the semi-final for the luxury of playing the bottom side.
Naroo Panthers were left to lick their wounds after having taken the initial grip on the contest but from the half way stage of their defence, their bowlers Mulvi and Mrunmay Das came in for a lot of stick as the team’s stranglehold slackened. Anand Majalikar was their best bowler with 2/9 off three overs.
The second match on Saturday, was a lop-sided affair as Baale Tigers missed five of their regulars including the most expensive player of the league Sayed Badi, and failed to match Retro Strikers.
Baale Tigers posted a moderate total of 135/9 after electing to bat first. Six of their batters got into double digits with Dhilan Shah and Sahil Adwalpalkar scoring 21 runs each. Ashwin Chandiok and Sunil Rathod contributed 19 runs apiece while Samir Sawant (17) and Iftikhar Agha (13) also provided handy runs for their team.
All-rounder Ninad Pawaskar, who had missed earlier games for Retro Strikers, first emerged the chief wicket-taker with 3/12 before siezing the initiative with the bat for his team with 34 runs off 14 balls (5×4, 2×6) and was named the man of the match. Among other bowlers to bag wickets for Strikers were – Amlon Dsouza (3/19), Sunny Kamat (2/10) and Balkrishna Hodarkar (1/25).
In reply, Strikers came out flying off the blocks with Ninad going after the bowlers. They raced to 50 in the fourth over and 100 in the eighth over, thereby setting the path for victory as well as lifting their net run-rate to third position in the table and avoid top-placed Estilo Legends in tomorrow’s semi-finals. Pranav Biche dished out a fiery knock as he led the charge after Ninad was out. In his 11 balls stay at the crease, Pranav stroked five boundaries and two sixers to score 36 runs. Sunny Kamat contributed 28 runs off 21 balls as Retro Strikers romped to victory, making 136/4 in 12.2 overs.
Baale’s Kiran Shirvoikar, Dhilan Shah and Kalpesh Salgaonkar took one wicket each.
