11yr Old Naseerudin steals the game away with his 164 & 2 wkts in Navi Mumbai Inter School Tournament
It was expected to be an exciting encounter between Sacred heart and Anjuman Islam but things just did not fell into place the way Sacred Heart would have wished for. Winning the toss, Anjuman Islam elected to bat first as they have a deep and solid batting line up and were confident of putting up a big score on the scorecard.
Batting first did reaped them rewards as Anjuman Islam made a mammoth 389 in just 42 overs. Left handed Bablu scored an aggressive 84 at the top of the order & so did his opening partner Farhan Sheikh who gave a good support for his brazen 45. Both the kids were responsible to instill a positive momentum in the batting. Such was the positive momentum they were in, no.4 batsman Naseerudin Shaikh made the full use of it to score a match winning knock of 164. The right handed aggressive batsman toyed with the bowlers and smashed boundaries and sixes at will against spinners as well as fast bowlers. It was because of his 164, Anjuman Islam reached a huge score of 389 in just 42 overs. Even after getting out at 164 Naseerudin Shaikh was not content with his score as few overs were still left & he could have taken his team to cross the record 400 run mark and also cross his double century. But, that hardly takes away the fact that it was a splendid knock coming from just an 11 year old.
Chasing 390, Sacred Heart needed to play aggressive crickete to win the match & they succumbed to the pressure and some good bowling by the Anjuman Islam boys. Both bablu and Naseerudin again became the heroes with right arm leg spinner Bablu taking 4/25 in 5 overs while right arm medium fast Naseerudin chipping in with 2 wickets for just 25 runs. Sacred heart were all out for just 74 runs and Anjuman islam won by a very huge margin(in fact one of the record margins) by 315 runs. Anjuman Islam School Navi Mumbai has the winner of last year 2015-16 inter school winner Under 16 and Under 14 Tournament in the guidance of Coach Mr. Manoj B. Lokhande.
It was a wonderful all round display by both the kids and especially the talented Naseerudin who gave us glimpses of his exceptional batting talent at such a small age. Naseerudin was rightly adjudged ‘man of the match’ for his all round performance.
After a clean win against Sacred heart school, Anjuman Islam and Naseerudin specifically will progress ahead in the tournament with a lot of confidence.
