Nanda Lolayekar Trophy: Sportsweek book berth in last-eight

Swapnil Yevale receives the Man of the Match award from Sushant Lolayekar.

Photo Credits: The Goan

MARGAO
Sportsweek beat Stamina Cricket Club by four wickets and entered the quarterfinals of the 43rd Nanda Lolayekar Trophy Commonwealth Developers-sponsored leather-ball cricket tournament at Nirakar Maidan, Mashem-Canacona on Sunday.

Sportsweek will clash with Margao Cricket Club on December 29.

Swapnil Yevle and Ved Mhambre put on a solid stand of 131 runs for the fifth wicket to ensure Sportsweek overcame the initial hiccups in pursuit of the target of 197.

After a top-order collapse, Sportsweek needed a counter-attack to resurrect their innings. Swapnil and Ved changed the complexion of the game with their stunning partnership. Swapnil in particular played the match-winning knock scoring 88 off 55 balls with his knock being studded with 12 boundaries and 2 sixes. Ved complemented his partner well and played responsibly at the other end. He took 55 balls for his 36 runs which consisted of just one boundary.

Sportsweek reached the victory target of 197 in 28 overs, losing 6 wickets, in a strong finish. Stamina’s Ajinkya Kudtarkar and Shreyas Natekar picked two wickets each.

Earlier, Stamina CC won the toss and elected to bat first. After losing wickets at regular intervals, the fifth-wicket partnership of 54 runs between Siddhesh Pandit (44) and Gautam Nandrekar (25) provided much-needed stability to the innings of Stamina CC.

Abhishek Singh (37 not out off 21 balls) played a crucial knock and was involved in the 7th-wicket partnership of 49 runs along with Ajinkya Kudtarkar (18). With the contributions from the starts that Arjun Morajkar (24), Vishwajeet Phadte (16) and Nitesh Vaiguinkar (15) got, Stamina CC got to a challenging total of 196/7 in the allotted 35 overs.

Deepak Kumar (2/33) and Sujay Naik (2/47) were the main wicket-takers for Sportsweek.

In reply, Sportsweek got off to a blazing start primarily due to Yash Prabhugaonkar, who struck three sixes and an equal number of boundaries in his quickfire 30 off 13 balls. Following the opener’s dismissal after a stand of 32 runs in 2.5 overs, Sportsweek lost wickets in a heap being reduced to 59/4 by the 10th over. Thereafter, Sportsweek rebuilt their charge in an admirable fashion