Dempo Cricket Club bowed out of the Bandodkar Premier T20 tournament despite a 25-run victory over Chowgule Sports Club in their last Group A match of the league phase at Panjim Gymkhana ground on Thursday afternoon.
Chowgule SC finished at the top of the three-team group while Salgaocar CC took the second position and made it to the semi-finals. Dempo missed out on the knockout stage as their net run-rate was the lowest. All three teams scored one victory each.
Chowgule won the toss and opted to field first in the must-win game for Dempo, who had to make up for Wednesday’s big loss to Salgaocar by winning by a certain margin to lift their net run-rate.
As such, Dempo showed the aggressive attitude right from the start and scored 60 runs in the power-play stage. However, they could not maintain the scoring rate throughout their inning, but managed a decent total of 174/8. Captain Manthan Khutkar struck six boundaries and a sixer on his way to an elegant knock of 55 runs off 36 balls. He combined with player-of-the match Akash Parkar (22) for a crucial fourth-wicket partnership of 52 runs, which provided the backbone to the Dempo total.
Chowgule bowlers Mohit Redkar (2/22) and Krishna Thakur (2/37) did a good job by striking at important junctures even as the fielders put in an ordinary shift barring one or two brilliant moments like the stunning diving catch by Sparsh Jain to send back a dangerous Sagar Mishra (18 off 11 balls; 2×4, 1×6).
In reply, Chowgule SC lost opener Kashyap Bakhle in the first over itself but recovered to get back on course with 39 runs partnership between skipper Samar Dubhashi and Shivam Amonkar (22). Samar, who scored a smashing unbeaten half-century in the last match to take his side to victory over Salgaocar, looked to repeat the show as he raced to 29 runs which included three boundaries and one sixer before Parkar (3/24) got the prized wicket to end Samar’s 18-ball stay at the crease with Chowgule score being 41/2 in 4.1 overs.
Although the scoring rate was not an issue for Chowgule, their batters seemed to make too many errors in the choice of their shots when sensible cricket was required to reach the target.
After Divyansh played a blinder of a knock of 40 runs in just 18 balls (4×4, 3×6) following Veer Yadav’s 13-ball 23, Chowgule were in the driver’s seat at 118/4 in 11.4 overs with 57 runs needed in 50 balls. Yet, the batters to follow including Ranji Trophy player Mohit Redkar failed to apply themselves and paid the price for it as the team was bowled out for 149 in 17.3 overs. Dempo bowlers worked hard with Rohan Bogati taking 3/18 while Fardin Khan picked up 2/32.