Panaji: Manas Mavericks got the better of a fighting Dempo Challengers by two wickets and topped the league stage of the 3rd Panjim Gymkhana Members League T20 tournament at PG ground here on Sunday. Manas will clash with second-placed Prescon Panthers in the Qualifier on 10th February. Third-placed Dempo Challengers will take on fourth-placed Desserts N’More Avengers in the first Eliminator on 11th February.
The last league match of PGML 3.0 produced a tight contest where the deep batting strength of Manas Mavericks enabled the Ilyas Naroo-led side to taste their fifth victory of the season. All-rounder Robin D’Souza was named Man-of-the match as he guided Manas Mavericks home after his team endured a shaky start to begin the chase of Dempo’s 133/6 and kept losing wickets regularly. However, it was Mehank Dharwadkar who siezed the impetus initially with a crucial contribution of 35 runs with a positive approach despite the loss of wickets at the other end. In his 18-ball stay at the crease, Mehank struck three boundaries and two sixers to keep Manas Mavericks in the hunt.
At 69/7 in 12th over, Manas were in all sorts of trouble when Robin joined Nityay Kuncolienkar (29 not out) in the centre. Nityay played sensibly while Robin (37) got his eye in before launching three sixers to power Manas to victory at 136/8 in 18.5 overs. The duo put on a valuable partnership of 63 runs for the 8th wicket to set up the victorious finish. Dempo bowlers Shekhar Amonkar, Narayan Kambli and Dhilan Shah took one wicket each.
Earlier, Dempo Challengers won the toss and batted first. A top-order collapse saw Dempo being reduced to 57/5 by the 11th over. It was the 6th-wicket stand of 64 runs between skipper Kiran Shirwaikar (38) and Sumiran Mehta (37) that helped the team to post a respectable total in the end. Vidhyut Pilankar and Dhilan Shah contributed 15 and 13 runs respectively. Manas Mavericks bowlers Rohit Rane, Robin D’Souza and Ilyas Naroo picked up one wicket each.
Sanjay Bharne was the chief guest for the presentation ceremony and presented the Man-of-the-match award to Robin D’Souza.
