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PANJIM: Dempo Challengers and Prescon Panthers sealed the remaining two Playoff positions at the ongoing PGML 4.0, at Panjim Gymkhana ground.
While Dempo progressed to the last-four stage with a comfortable 4-wicket victory over Manas Mavericks, Prescon Panthers made the play-offs despite going down to Baale Tigers by 7 wickets.
Dempo Challengers finished third in the points table with six points from 6 games. Their net run-rate (NRR) was superior to Prescon Panthers, who also ended up with 6 points from 6 matches to finish fourth. Desserts N’More Avengers, also with 6 points, finished fifth due to an inferior NRR.
Baale Tigers finished the league engagements with second successive victory and with 4 points from 6 matches, they finished 6th in the 7-team PGML. The holders Manas Mavericks endured a disastrous season where they lost five out of six matches, to occupy the bottom position.
While Prescon Panthers had almost booked their play-off spot after their last match and only needed to avoid a humiliation that could have dropped their NRR below that of the Avengers, Dempo Challengers were in a do-or-die situation in their last league match. Dempo Challengers will take on Prescon Panthers in the Eliminator on February 9.
Brief scores: Prescon Panthers 102 in 19.5 overs (Iftikhar Agha 35, Vivek Karapurkar 17 not out, Aditya Angle 13; Mrunmay Das 2/16); Baale Tigers 104/3 in 17.5 overs (Kapil Angle 40, Shushrut Nasnodkar 35, Harshad Gadekar 11 not out; Aditya Angle 1/7), Baale Tigers win by 7 wickets.
Manas Mavericks 120Manas Mavericks 120 all out (Ilyas Naroo 30, Heramb Parab 30, Ajinkya Kudtarkar 17; Niraj Lotlekar 3/21); Dempo Challengers 121/6 in 17 overs (Tunish Sawkar 38, Om Fadte 37, Neel Netravalkar 13; Ilyas Naroo 1/06), Dempo Challengers win by 4 wickets.
