IES New English, Al-Barkaat enter Harris Shield final

Al-Barkaat's Saumil Malandkar en route his 55 at Bombay Gymkhana. Pic/Atul Kamble

Riding on an unbeaten half-century by Anuraag Nair and a well-made 41 by opener Aditya Pabalkar, IES New English School (Bandra) beat IES VN Sule Guruji School (Dadar) by virtue of a 79-run first innings lead in a Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised U-16 Harris Shield cricket semi-final at the MIG Cricket Club in Bandra yesterday.

In the other semi-final, middle-order batsmen Prem Naik (53) and Saumil Malandkar (55), cracked half centuries to help defending champions Al-Barkaat English Medium (Kurla) overcome Rizvi Springfield (Bandra) via better quotient at Bombay Gymkhana.

Anuraag Nair

IES Bandra resumed Day Two on 22 for no loss with skipper Karan Suraiya and Aditya on 15 and six respectively in reply to VN Sule Guruji's 118 all out on Day One. The duo added 41 runs for the opening wicket before Karan was dismissed leg-before by off-spinner Adarsh Yadav (3-78) for 24. Thereafter, Aditya and Adit Degaonkar (87-ball 28) played patiently, adding 57 runs off 169 balls for the second wicket before the former was caught by Adarsh off his own bowling.

Adit was run out by Aditya Pawar in the space of seven balls with the score reading 100-3. The Bandra boys were sweating at 104-4 when Siddid Tiwari was caught and bowled by Adarsh in his next over. But Anuraag and Bhatt Manan added 54 runs for the fifth wicket, going past VN Sule Guruji's first innings score en route.

In the Al-Barkaat v Rizvi match, the Kurla side replied to the Bandra outfit's 209 for 9 declared in 96 overs with 186 for 7 in 80 overs on the second and final day of the match. Al-Barkaat, who had a better net run-rate of 2.33 as compared to Rizvi's 2.18, were declared winners.

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