Sharjah Under-15s tied down Our Own Zenith with their array of spin bowlers to script a superb 30-run win in their Sport360° National School League clash at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Batting first, DPS made 100 for the loss of five wickets in their allotted 20 overs.
After Abhinav Dhawan got off to a cautious start and was bowled while slogging Chitesh Balaji when on three, it was fellow opener Mukul Anand who took the responsibility of holding one end up as he scored 25 runs from 33 deliveries. He was well supported by captain Sparsh Hedge, who chipped in with 22.
For Our Own, leg spinner Vishal Raj was the pick of the bowlers, as he ended up with excellent figures of 4-10.
That total seemed fairly gettable but DPS came up with a unique strategy to catch Our Own on the wrong foot.
They started off with spinners and continued with them throughout the match, making full use of the help on offer from the wicket and also cutting down on the extras in the process.
Opener Atul Haridas was castled by Mohammad Sajid and onedown batsman Mohammad Ajmal was deceived by a googly bowled by Anand and was stumped by wicketkeeper Dhawan.
And when Brandon Martis was trapped leg before by Devnath Menon, who operated with an uncanny resemblance to West Indies spinner Sunil Narine, Our Own were in huge trouble at 18 for three in seven overs.
The pressure kept piling on and it was Anand who bowled the decisive over of the game, picking up the wickets of Glenn Fernandes and Balaji in the 14th over to turn the match in his team’s favour.
By the time the last wicket pair came together, 34 runs were needed and that proved too much of an uphill task for Our Own. The game ended with both Raj and Kevin Lewis colliding in the middle of the wicket and ending in the run out of the latter.
After the win, DPS coach Vikram Dutt said he was confident his bowlers could defend the total.
“We were confident of our chances. A score of 100 is not easy to get on this wicket. The spinners did a fantastic job. When I saw them (Our Own) bowl, their seamers bowled too many extras and were struggling to control the ball. So I decided to go with spinners and that took them by surprise,” Dutt said.
The coach, however, wanted a better performance from the batsmen.
“Batting first we should have had around 140. That would have been a challenging total on this wicket. Our batting needs to improve from here on.”
Star performer Anand was pleased with his effort on the day.
“I am proud of my performance. I am glad I could contribute both with the bat and ball. I tried my best to help my team. The wicket was a bit up and down and I had to adjust my game. While batting I had to check my shots and play more cautiously. While bowling, I was trying to keep it tight and it worked,” Anand said.
Our Own’s coach Fostus Xavier was left ruing the lack of application from his batsmen.
“Our batting was a big disappointment. They are good players but I don’t know why things went wrong today. Probably they didn’t expect to face spin throughout the match and got surprised,” he said.
“Our fielding and bowling was decent but I guess a lot needs to be done in our batting. I will probably try to shuffle our batting for the next match. One thing is for sure, there will be a lot of practice against spinners now.”
