Geno Dragons prevailed over Venture XI by five wickets in a high-scoring floodlit match in the Goa Women’s Premier League T20 tournament at GCA Academy ground, Porvorim on Sunday.
Player of the match Ibtisam Shaikh scored an unbeaten 54 of 53 deliveries as Geno achieved the target of 146 in 19.5 overs with five wickets in hand.
The Goa wicket-keeper batter struck six boundaries and a sixer in her responsible inning, and also put on a 72-run partnership with Mitali Gawander (37) for the third wicket, to set up a winning start for the Dragons. Geno captain Anuja Patil played a cameo of 9-ball 17 down the order as her two boundaries and a sixer helped the team stay in touch with the asking rate.
Earlier, Venture XI had posted a challenging total of 145/5 with Tamana Nigam scoring a classy unbeaten 74 runs in 52 balls with her knock being studded with 11 boundaries and a six. Captain Tarannum Pathan scored 31 runs, which comprised six boundaries. Wicket-keeper and opener Rahila Firdous made 11 runs. Geno’s Tanaya Naik, Kiran Navgire and Mitali Gawander claimed one wicket each.
The player of the match award was presented to Ibtisam Shaikh by Vivek Pednekar.