Staff Reporter
Panaji
New entrants Risers and United Brothers recorded massive wins in their respective matches on the opening day of the 5th edition of Advocates Cricket League, organised by Adv Iftikhar Agha and his team, at GCA ground in Porvorim on Thursday.
While Risers completed a thumping 87-run victory over Mapusa Troopers, United Brothers got the better of Hurricanes by 37 runs.
The day however belonged to Risers’ opening batter Anoop Kudtarkar, who perhaps became the first player to hit a century in the 5-year history of Advocates Cricket League. Anoop hit a whirlwind unbeaten knock of 149 runs off just 68 balls that had 8 fours and as many as 13 massive sixes.
Riding on Anoop’s fireworks, Risers posted a mammoth 246/4 in 20 overs. Abhinav Marathe (46) and Sahil Khot (24) were the other two main contributors.
Risers won the toss and elected to bat first, but didn’t get the start they expected. They lost opener Akash Kassar (3) cheaply with team’s score reading 9 for 1 in the third over. However, after that it all turned out to be a one-man show with Anoop going hammer and tong, smashing every bowler of Mapusa Troopers to all parts of the
ground.
Anoop first stitched a 93-run partnership for the second wicket with Sahil Sathe in just 46 balls, and then joined hands with Abhinav Marathe to accumulate 118 runs, in only 48 balls, for the third wicket.
Mapusa Troopers began their chase of the humongous 247-run victory target in the right earnest, as they scored 85 for 2 in 9 overs with their skipper Kalpesh Kamat hitting a 32-ball 52. However once the skipper departed, barring Jitendra Gaonkar (31) and Chetan Sangelkr (24 not out), no other batter could show any real intent to go after the target. As such Mapusa Troopers could manage 159/7 in their stipulated 20 overs and lost the match by 87 runs.
Anoop Kudtarkar was adjudged the man of the match for his epic knock.
Earlier in the day, another debutants United Brothers outclassed Hurricanes by 37 runs. Put in to bat by Hurricanes, United Brothers had a dismal start to their innings as they lost both their openers with only one run on the board. But skipper Prasad Sutar (42 off 38) in the company of Sanket Salgaocar (57 off 46) began resurrection of their innings and stitched a solid 110-run stand that gave the batters to follow the platform to set a big total. Next batters Dattaraj Gawas (38 off 18) and Dattaraj Parab (49 not out off 17) did not let his captain’s efforts go in vain as they took full advantage of Hurricanes’ poor bowling as well as the reprieves given to by their fielders to score brisk knocks and post a challenging 201/5 in 20 overs.
For Hurricanes, skipper Vitthalraj Sangoldekar was the most successful bowler taking 2 for 32.
Vitthalraj then began Hurricanes’ chase with a bang hitting five fours in his 21-run knock off just 8 balls. Opener Devanand Korgaonkar (26) and Kyle Tiklo (52 off 37) continued the onslaught on the bowlers of United Brothers. As long as the two batters were at the crease, the 202-run target looked gettable. However, both the batters departed in quick succession, allowing United Brothers make a comeback. And they did it in style restricting Hurricanes to 164/8 in 20 overs and won the match by 37 runs.
For United Brothers, Vaibhav Bandekar, Dattaraj Gawas and Raghu Parab took two wickets each. Satyam Ghogale chipped in with one wicket.
Dattaraj Gawas (38 runs and 2 wickets) was awarded the man of the match prize for his all-round performance.
Earlier GCA president Vipul Phadke inaugurated the fifth edition of ACL T20 tournament in the presence of Adv S N Joshi, Madan Verekar, Dominic Pereira and Iftikhar Agha.