PANAJI: Estilo Legends bounced back after opening day’s loss, with a 30-run victory over Retro Strikers in the Zooter Goa Super League at Panjim Gymkhana ground here on Sunday afternoon. This was the second consecutive defeat for the Strikers.
Estilo Legends, who had slumped to a 12-run loss to Baale Tigers on Saturday in a low-scoring affair, won the toss and batted first with an aggressive mindset. A fantastic partnership of 69 runs for the second wicket between opener Sachin Sardesai (40 off 23 balls; 4×4, 2×6) and allrounder Aditya Naik (36 runs off 29 balls; 3×4) set the tone for the Legends to pile up the highest total of the league so far at 189/9.
Skipper Saheel Dhuri scored a quickfire 36 off 21 balls (3×4, 2×6) while Chandrakant Ghadi delivered a fiery 33 off 15 balls, which included five boundaries and a sixer.
Amlon D’Souza was the most successful bowler for Strikers, picking up 3/26. Team owner Balkrishna Hodarkar, Siddharth Ghanekar and Sunny Kamat took one wicket each.
Retro Strikers, who had gone down by 28 runs to Naroo Panthers on the first day, failed to build partnerships at the top of their innings as wickets fell regularly. Basu Madar had the rival batters dancing to his spinning deliveries as he bagged the top three wickets, reducing the Strikers to 38/3 in the seventh over.
Towards the fag end of the innings, Siddharth Ghanekar (27 off 14 balls; 4×4, 1×6) and Pranav Biche (28 off 16 balls, 5×4) provided the much-needed acceleration, but it proved to be too little too late to change the course of the match as the Strikers were all out for 159 in 19.1 overs. Swapnil Malik (19), Balkrishna Hodarkar (17), Amlon D’Souza (15) and Nikit Dalal (14) were the other notable contributors with the bat.
Estilo Legends’ Aditya Naik, who also picked up two wickets, was named the man of the match. Vinod Wilson and Vinay Palekar took two wickets each while Saheel Dhuri picked up one wicket.