Centurion Swapnil powers Caculo Goans to final

PANJIM: Swapnil Asnodkar scored the first century of the tournament with a 61 ball 106 to inspire debutants Caculo Goans to a 28 run victory over Geno Dragons and guarantee a place in the final of 6th Goa Professional League (GPL) T20 cricket tournament, organized by Goa Cricket Association (GCA), at GCA Academy ground, Porvorim, on Saturday.

It was a must win situation for the teams as Salgacoar SC had already cemented their berth in Sundays final. Geno Dragons and Salgaocar, both have 16 points from their engagements but the letter progressed ahead with a better net run rate.

Caculo Goans won the toss and elected to bat first, posting a mammoth 169/7.

Geno Dragons struck with two early wickets in the very first over as skipper Robin D’Souza dismissed opener Salman Ahmed and Rajat Seth for the scoreboard to read 4/2.

However, Swapnil Asnodkar and Rohit Asnodkar kept their cool and put up a brilliant 93 run partnership that proved vital.

Subsequently, Rohit was stumped by keeper Rahul Keni off the bowling of Ramesh Prasad on 34.

But Swapnil carried on the momentum even after being dropped at 44 at deep mid wicket by Shivam Mapsekar off Robin’s full toss. It not only gave Swapnil a lifeline but also a boundary as he went onto register the first century of the tournament.

In the process, Swapnil also became the leading run scorer with 238 runs to his name at an average of 143.4. Thus, surpassing teammate Sunny Patel, who has scored 224 runs till now.

Swapnil finished in style with a six from the last ball of the innings which took the teams total to 169/7. R Raje was the most expensive bowler, giving away 51 runs and picking up only one wicket.    

In reply, Geno Dragons only managed 141/10 in 18.2 overs. Opener Rahul Keni (45) was their top run scorer but did not get much support from his teammates.

Geno Dragons were on course in their run chase but Sunny changed the complexion of the match by picking a hat-trick in the 16th over, a first in GPL’s history. He first bowled out Amit Dani and R Raje followed in same fashion. Sunny’s third victim was Shivam (lbw).     

Sashikant Kadam was outstanding with the ball as he clinched four wickets while Sunny Patel claimed three wickets.

In the final match of the round robin league, Sun Estates Warriors defeated Dempo CC by four wickets.