PANAJI: A superb unbeaten century by Sohraab Dhaliwal guided Geno Sports Club to an emphatic seven-wicket victory over Chowgule SC in the first semi-final of Bandodkar Premier T20 tournament at Panjim Gymkhana ground here on Wednesday afternoon.
Sohraab’s brilliance was the standout individual display of the match as the powerful batter, who has played List A and T20 cricket for Madhya Pradesh, smashed Chowgule bowlers to all parts of the ground as he rained eight sixers and six boundaries on his way to a chanceless 101 runs off 52 balls. With Sohraab in total control, Geno cantered to 178/3 in 15.2 overs in the chase of Chowgule’s total of 175/8.
Earlier put into bat, Chowgule got a few quickfire contributions from the bat of Kashyap Bakhle (31 off 22 balls), Shubham Gajinkar (28 off 18 balls), Divyansh (28 off 22), Krishna Thakur (25 off 11 balls) among others to set a challenging target of 176 for a place in the final. After early loss of two wickets, captain Samar Dubhashi (19) and Kashyap combined for a stand of 36 runs the third wicket to start a recovery process. Kashyap and Divyansh then added 34 runs for the fourth wicket, to consolidate.
Geno bowlers did not allow their rivals to settle into a groove and picked up wickets at regular intervals with Mayank Rawat being the chief wicket-taker with figures of 3/28. Samit Aryan Mishra claimed two wickets while captain Harshad Gadekar, Manas and player-of-the match Sohraab Dhaliwal picked up a wicket each.
In reply, Geno started off with a calamitous run-out of Anand Tendulkar, who was out without facing a ball in the first over itself. But his experienced opening partner Ishaan Gadekar approached the situation positively and with incoming batter Sohraab displaying a very confident state of mind, Geno cruised to build a strong foundation with the second-wicket partnership of 82 runs in 7.2 overs.
Ishaan played his natural attacking game and his 39 runs came off 21 balls, which included five boundaries and two sixers. Sohraab at the other end, looked set to bring up the first century of the Bandodkar Premier League T20 tournament 2022-23, as he dealt in boundaries and sixers. Geno were placed on the verge of victory at 172/3 in 15.1 overs, with Sohraab on 95 off 51 balls when the 31-year-old right-handed batter picked his spot over the deep extra-cover boundary for a stunning sixer off the bowling of Krishna Thakur to bring up his century in style while taking his team into the final in a commanding fashion. Mayank Rawat remained not out on 29 off 16 balls with their unfinished fourth-wicket stand being worth 78 runs. Chowgule’s Krishna Thakur picked two wickets.
Vice-President of Panjim Gymkhana, Gaurish Dhond presented the player-of-the match award to Sohraab.