Our Own English School claim Maxtalent Global Vision Cup

Denzil Pinto 08:47 30/05/2016
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  • The Victorious Our Own English School team.

    The spinners were the stand-out bowlers for OOES with identical figures of 3-20 in their four overs as GEMS Modern Academy fell short by 22 runs in their Twenty20 encounter.

    At the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, GEMS captain Karan Kapoor elected to field first after winning the toss. OOES opener Mohammed Afsal, buoyed by a 96-run knock in his previous match, and captain Ashwin Balakrishnan got the team off to flying start with an opening stand of 48.

    Brandon Martis kept the scoreboard ticking along with a valuable 38 runs as OOES were on track to reach a big total, but GEMS struck back. Despite losing batsmen, OOES remained composed to frustrate GEMS and score a competitive total of 144-8.

    Sushain Thapar did the damage with the ball, claiming four wickets in a superb spell that saw just 27 runs conceded in his four overs.

    On a slow wicket, GEMS lost star batsman Ronak Panoly early on in their chase but Aditya Mysore led the recovery, hitting a patient 39 runs from 36 deliveries.

    He was well-supported by Aditya Oberoi, who scored 31 in 30 balls as they edged closer to victory. But OOES showed their class with the ball as Jagdish, Raj and Glenn Fernandes (2-15) picked up wickets.

    For Raj, it was another gold medal having been part of the side that triumphed in Sport360 AIB NSL in January. The 15-year-old was ecstatic to get past the tough opponents.

    Captain marvel: Ashwin Balakrishnan.

    Captain marvel: Ashwin Balakrishnan.

    “We knew it was never going to be an easy task because every team that reaches the final of any competition is going to be difficult to beat,” he said.

    “GEMS Modern Academy were tough opponents and we really needed to be at our best to beat them. But we went into the game with a lot of self-belief and we bowled extremely well to defend our total. It’s a great feeling to lift the MGS Vision Cup because it’s a great school tournament for budding cricketers to develop their skills.”

    Maxtalent head coach Sudhakar Shetty hailed the tournament and was impressed with the quality of cricket he saw.

    “The MGS Vision Cup has been running for a long time and it has a rich history of producing top cricketers who have gone to represent the UAE international team,” he said. “In this year’s tournament, the  matches were of the highest quality  with some really talented cricketers showing their skills and it was great to see them embrace this tournament because grass-roots cricket is the only way to develop their skills and knowledge.”

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