Panaji
Manas Mavericks became the first team to ensure qualifier berth after a hard-fought victory over Prescon Panthers, while RC Goa scored a nail-biting 1-run win against Baale Tigers to put themselves in a good position to qualify for the top-four finish in the league stage of the 3rd Panjim Gymkhana Members League T20 tournament at PG ground here on Saturday.
Manas Mavericks had to work hard to chase down Prescon Panthers total of 141 all out, and they achieved the victory 143/6 in 19 overs.
In the other match, RC Goa defended 132/8 successfully as Baale Tigers fell agonizingly short by a run, reaching 131/9.
Manas Mavericks thus moved to the top of the seven-team PGML with four wins and a loss from five league games. Desserts N’More Avengers are second in the table with 3 wins and 2 losses same as RC Goa in third position due to lesser quotient. Prescon Panthers are in the fourth position with 2 wins and two losses.
The first match of the day saw Prescon Panthers put into bat, missing their usual fluency and lacked the authority. Neither of their batters were able to dominate as Manas Mavericks bowlers picked up wickets at regular intervals. Prajyot Rivonker (28), Siddharth Ghanekar (24) and Vivek Karapurkar (23) contributed with the bat.
Manas Mavericks bowler Vikram Chodankar came up with a fine performance as he picked up four wickets giving away just 23 runs. He won the man of the match award and also a special prize of Rs 10,000
Manas Mavericks in reply, suffered a top-order failure but their depth in batting gave a good account of themselves with crucial partnerships for 4th and 6th wickets before a comfortable finish in the end through Robin D’Souza's fiery 21 not out off 9 balls. Ajinkya Kudtarkar (29), Mehank Dharwadkar (28) and Sandeep Darveshi (23 not out) played an important role in the victory.
In the second match of the day, RC Goa batted first on winning the toss but their batters found it hard to get big shots in. Devidas Kholkar with 35 off 34 balls and Aryan Mashelkar with 33 off 31 balls put on 56 runs for the second wicket to set a foundation. However, the batters to follow were stifled and efforts of Swayam Naik (27 off 20 balls) and Dattesh Priolkar (19 off 11 balls) could only take the team total to 132/8. Baale's Rabindra Jhunjhunwala picked 3 wickets.
In reply, Baale Tigers were at par with required run rate but lost wickets at crucial junctures to suffer their 5th loss of the league and finished their quota of six matches with just one win.
Kapil Angle once again came up with a fine batting performance with 40 off 33 balls. Smit Dalvi remained unbeaten on 21 while Ashwin Chandiok scored 18 valuable runs to take his team close to the victory target. With 4 runs required for win off the last ball, Sanjay Netravalkar (10) was run out while attempting to complete the third run in a dramatic finish. RC Goa's Swayam Naik (2/27) was named man of the match for his all-round effort.
Dr Digambar Naik and Dinesh Sinari were the guests for the presentation ceremony and gave the prizes.
On Friday, RC Goa and Priority Titans scored important victory each in their respective outings.
RC Goa rode on a fantastic all-round show by their skipper and Man of the Match, Harshad Gadekar (2/13 & 40 not out) to shock leaders Desserts N’More Avengers by five wickets table while Priority Titans tasted their first victory of the league in their fourth match, against Baale Tigers.
