PANAJI
Dempo Cricket Club will clash with Karimabad Sports Club in the final of Bandodkar T20 League, on Tuesday morning here at Panjim Gymkhana at 10.30 am. In the semifinals on Monday, Dempo beat Chowgule Sports Club by 10 runs after Karimabad registered a 17-run victory over Salgaocar Cricket Club in the first last-four clash.
Batting first on winning the toss, Dempo got off to a disastrous start losing the wicket of their captain Snehal Kauthankar and experienced wicket-keeper batter Keenan Vaz off back to back deliveries in the first over being bowled by Felix Alemao. And from that stage, Dempo were not just able to recover to respectability, but also mounted a heroic counter-attack to post a challenging total of 167/6.
Azeem Kazi (47) and Mukul Kasana (42) put together an invaluable partnership of 91 runs for the third wicket to lay a solid platform for the team to build on. In the second half of their inning, Dempo plundered 116 runs thanks to big-hitting Divyang Hinganekar (29 not out of 14 balls) while Vikas Singh contributed 23 runs of 13 balls. In reply, Chowgule were restricted to 157/7 with Darshan Misal being the top-scorer with 50 off 31 balls.
Earlier, Karimabad Sports Club defended a fighting total of 145/9 by bowling out Salgaocar Cricket Club for 128 in 19 overs. Left-arm pacer Rishabh Chaubey was the wrecker-in-chief as he bagged five wickets giving away 25 runs.
