Snehal Kauthankar
PANAJI
Goa did extremely well Goa this Ranji season by winning all their five matches in their Plate group and thereby topping the points table with 33 points. This meant that Goa qualified for Ranji Elite Group for next season.
The Goan side defeated Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh without much effort. Even though the wins may have come against lower-ranked sides, it was a good all-round solid performance by the Goan team with both theirs batters and bowlers contributing to the victories.
Multiple players contributed to the success of the Goan team, with five different players winning the ‘Player of the Match’ awards – Shubham Tari, Krishnamurthy Siddharth, Darshan Misal, Snehal Kauthankar and Kashyap Bakhale, with Kauthankar winning it twice.
Snehal Kauthankar who top scored for Goa this Ranji season with 684 runs was undoubtedly the star performer. His classic knocks of 250 against Mizoram at Ahmedabad which was followed by 314 not out against Arunachal Pradesh at Porvorim were the highlights for Goa. Infact, his innings against Arunachal was the highest individual score by a Goan batsman in first class cricket.
During that match, Kauthankar and Kashyap Bakhale recorded the highest partnership in Ranji with their unbroken 606 runs stand against Arunachal Pradesh. In the process, Bakhale also scored his maiden triple ton as he remained unbeaten on 300. Infact, Snehal and Kashyap slammed the second and third-fastest first-class triple tons by an Indian. That match saw a number of records being broken.
Among other top performer for Goa was its skipper Darshan Misal who was the highest wicket-taker for Goa with 25 wickets, which included two five-wicket hauls, 6/71 against Mizoram and 5/51 against Nagaland. Infact, Darshan was one of the key elements in Goa’s victories over both these sides – Mizoram and Nagaland.
Among other centurions for Goa were Krishnamurthy Siddharth’s 130 not out and Manthan Khutkar’s 104 against Sikkim. Goa’s only player who plays at the IPL Suyash Prabhudessai (120) also scored a hundred. It was against Manipur in the opening match at Porvorim.
With 18 wickets, Mohit Redkar was the second highest wicket taker for Goa, which included a five-wicket haul (5/43) against Mizoram.
Shubham Tari shone on his debut against Manipur to pick up nine wickets (9/88) in an innings.
Despite missing his first match due to an injury, Arjun Tendulkar also performed reasonably well to pick up 16 wickets, which included his maiden five-wicket haul (5/25) against Arunachal Pradesh.
Overall, it was an entire team effort in all the departments of the game – batting, bowling and fielding - that contributed to Goa’s wins in all their games.
