Monday, October 14, 2013

ITZ Matches 4 & 5 – two finalists identified


Two close-fought matches at ICG on Sunday October 13 culminated in the first two ITZ finalists being identified – the Mad-gaonkars and the Panjim Pastafarians. 

Match 4 (Blue Group)

The first match featured the three teams of the Blue Group – the Mad-gaonkars, the Ponda Ponderers and the Dons of Dona Paula. The seeded Margao team were carrying a 10-point lead over the second-placed Ponda team into the second leg of the tournament. The match saw fortunes ebb and flow, the lead swinging between the two teams, with the Dons never out of it either. In the last couple of rounds, however, the Mad-gaonkars accelerated away, eventually finishing comfortable winners, both on the day and cumulatively. The other two teams, though much closer spaced, also finished in the same sequence as in the first round, putting Ponda through to the play-off.

Match 4 (Blue Group leg 2)
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
(represented by Tallulah D'Silva)

1st: Mad-gaonkars (Lynn Barreto Miranda*, Ira Almeida, Julian D'Costa, Sanjay Parab, Suraj Kamat, Viola Rodrigues) – 135 points
2nd: Ponda Ponderers (Ameya Mardolkar*, Anirudh Shirsat, Ashwin Mysore, Raghunandan Mysore) – 100
3rd: Dons of Dona Paula (Veenu Vas*, Ananya Mukherjee, Conrad Fernandes, Pranab Mukhopadhyay, Samyak Rajanala, Taran Mukherjee) – 95

Blue Group final standings
1st: Mad-gaonkars (250)
2nd: Ponda Ponderers (205)
3rd: Dons of Dona Paula (195)

Match 5 (Red Group)

The Red Group leg 2 match was even more of a cliffhanger, with the qualifying place for the play-off match being decided effectively on an unfortunate buzzer call on the last question of the match. One has to feel for the young Patraos of Porvorim who came so close but failed to make it past the seeded Procrastinators. Of course, the Panjim team was missing its star centre-forward Rajiv D'Silva (away on national duty) and things would probably have been quite different with him in the squad. But its city rivals, representing a thin sliver of the Miramar-Caranzalem coastline, made the most of the circumstances, erasing their deficit from the first leg with a vengeance and easily cantering through to occupy the second finalist spot.

Match 5 (Red Group leg 2)
QM: Lynn Barreto Miranda

1st: Panjim Pastafarians (Kunal Naik*, Adish Talwadker, Ajey Patil, Marc Mascarenhas, Mohnish Sardessai, Pranav Khadpe, Rohan Saxena) – 145 points
2nd: Porvorim Patraos (Paul Gatward*, Ashwin Mascarenhas, Roshan Kumar, Srijit Kumar) – 65
3rd: Panjim Procrastinators (Amit Shet*, Anant S. Prabhu, Nitish Fatarpekar, Raunaq Rao, Sunil Sardessai, Tallulah D'Silva, Yash Latkar) – 55

Red Group final standings
1st: Panjim Pastafarians (265)
2nd: Panjim Procrastinators (195)
3rd: Porvorim Patraos (190)

Through to the finals: Mad-gaonkars, Panjim Pastafarians
In the play-off: Ponda Ponderers, Panjim Procrastinators

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