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I-League: Dempo thrash Sporting Clube de Goa 3-0
Margao: Dempo SC today went on to thrash Sporting Clube De Goa 3-0 in an I-League football tournament with the superb play from Lenny Rodrigues, Alwyn George and Francis Fernandes.
Sporting had to play with ten men after defender Clement Joseph was sent off in the first half.
Dempo made a couple of changes to their starting line-up as striker Alwyn George and veteran midfielder Clifford Miranda replaced forwards Mandar Rao Dessai and Holicharan Narzary.
Sporting coach Mateus Costa also made two changes to his first eleven as Pratesh Shirodkar and Sumeet Passi were deployed in place of Don Bosco Fernandes and Joseph Pereira.
Five minutes into the game Dempo got a jolt when mid-fielder Peter Carvalho got injured injury and was replaced by Germanpreet Singh.
Both Sporting and Dempo had their chances but the custodians were equal to the task, keeping the game goalless till the 28th minute when Rodrigues found himself at the end of a midfielder Carlos Hernandez ball who then skipped past the defenders to fire in the first goal from the edge of the box.
Sporting encountered more problems two minutes into the first half stoppage time as they were reduced to ten men, with defender Joseph being sent off for a second yellow card offence after a tackle on Miranda.
Dempo doubled their lead courtesy a George strike five minutes into the second half as he got away from his marker Rojen Singh and slotted the ball into the net.
Sporting tried to stage a comeback with only few minutes from regulation time to play but midfielder Royston Dsouza’s shot and Liberian-Australian striker Boima Karpeh’s header failed to find the target.
In the fourth minute of injury time, Joyner Lourenco’s intercepted a pass from Germanpreet and the ball fell into the path of Francis Fernandes who went on to find the back of the net, making it 3-0.
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.