PANAJI
Dempo Challengers and Manas Mavericks, each tasted their second consecutive victories in the 3rd edition of Panjim Gymkhana Members League T20 tournament, at PG ground, Campal, on Saturday.
Baale Tigers slumped to their second defeat in the league, when they went down by three wickets to defending champions Dempo Challengers in a low-scoring affair. Later in the day, Desserts N’More Avengers lost to Manas Mavericks by 15 runs, thus suffering their first loss of the PGML 3.0.
Dempo Challengers made heavy weather of a modest chase after electing to bowl first. With their batting not clicking once again, Baale Tigers ended up with a total of 109/9 in the alloted 20 overs. Kapil Angle (40 runs off 36 balls) and Smit Dalvi (31 runs off 37 balls) were the only batters to get into double digits. Dempo's Shekhar Amonkar picked 2 wickets.
Dempo Challengers found the going tough and lost wickets one after the other although they maintained the required run rate. It was the 37-run seventh-wicket partnership between Shubham Lokre (24 not out) and Vidhyut Pilankar (24) that ensured no further slip-ups happened and the defending champions were home at 110/7 in 19.4 overs. Baale's Harshal Shah picked up three wickets.
Dinar Bhatcar was the chief guest for the presentation ceremony and gave away the man of the match prize to Shubham Lokre of Dempo Challengers.
In the second match of the day, Manas Mavericks posted the highest total of the PGML at 184/7 after electing to bat first. Robin D’Souza struck four sixers in his blazing 17-ball knock of 38 runs, Rohit Rane made 38 off 27 balls, and opener Abhijit Bhandari smashed 31 runs off just 15 balls, to ensure Manas Mavericks powered their way to a huge score.
While Desserts N'More Avengers did battle hard, the asking rate kept jumping up in the face of disciplined effort of Manas Mavericks bowlers and fielders as the Avengers fell short of the target, reaching 169/8 in a run-fest. Mithil Vengurlekar (34), captain Sameer Chodankar (29) and Harsh Jetaji (21) were the top run-getters. Robin D’Souza and Rohit Rane, who was named man of the match, picked up two wickets each. Rajesh Dempo was the chief guest and gave away the man of the match award.
