Geno Sports Club and Salgaocar Cricket Club registered victory in their respective matches on the opening day of Bandodkar League T20 Cricket Tournament organised by Panjim Gymkhana here on Tuesday.
Defending champions Geno scored a 4-wicket victory over Chowgule SC in the first match. Salgaocar beat Panjim Gymkhana by 24 runs in the second match of the day. Both matches were high-scoring encounters.
Geno SC chased down Chowgule's total of 212/7 in 17.3 overs with strong contributions coming from Kaushal Hattangadi (51 off 31 balls; 7x4, 1x6), Player-of-the match all-rounder Nihal Surlakar (40 not out off 13 balls; 2x4, 4x6) and Vikas Singh (39 not out off 17 balls; 4x4, 2x6). The unfinished 7th-wicket partnership yielded 71 runs to fuel the successful chase.
Earlier put into bat, Chowgule posted 212/7 with Madhur Yadav playing a nice knock of 73 runs off 42 balls (6x4, 4x6) and Shivendra Bhujbal providing the acceleration with a cameo of 10-ball 36 runs (1x4, 5x6). Pundalik Naik (3/46) and Nihal Surlakar (2/37) were the main wicket takers for Geno.
Nihal Surlakar was named Player of the Match and presented with the trophy by Girish Parekh, Managing Committee member, Panjim Gymkhana.
In the second match, player-of-the match Shantanu Nevagi scored a superb century (100 off 53 balls; 10x4, 5x6) and put on 155 runs partnership for 3rd wicket with Yogesh Kauthankar (56 off 33 balls) to power Salgaocar Cricket Club to a mammoth total of 230/6 having been put into bat.
In reply, Panjim Gymkhana were restricted to 206/9. Dishank Misquin put up a valiant effort with the bat, remaining unbeaten on 62 runs off 33 balls (5×4, 3x6). Shardul Shet scored 42 runs off 22 balls at the top of the batting order. Apart from these two individual contributions, Panjim Gymkhana batting failed to click as a unit. Salgaocar's Achit Shigwan (3/30), Yogesh Kauthankar (2/04) and captain Amulya Pandrekar (2/31) picked wickets at regular intervals to wreck their rivals' chase.
Shantanu Nevagi was presented player-of-the match trophy by Panjim Gymkhana treasurer Rohan Bhandare.
