Al-Barkat’s Purple patch continues after big win in Semis
Al-Barkat school, Kurla registered a comprehensive victory against V.N.Sule Vidyalaya, Dadar and entered Final of this season’s Harris shield in style. This was Al-Barkat’s 4th consecutive win in elite group of Harris Shield this season. Having won previous 3 matches by an innings margin, they almost did the same in semi final which was played at Times of India ground at Azad maidan.
The first semi final which began on 16th of December was a 3 day fixture. But having taken an upper edge on day 1, Al-Barkat didn’t give any chance to V.N.Sule vidyalaya for making comeback. Al-Barkat started day 2 with 91 for 4, 3 runs ahead of V.N.Sule’s 1st innings score of 88. They were looking to build a massive score but thanks to Ninad Thakur’s 6 for 51, perhaps the only mentionable performance from V.N.Sule’s team, as Al-Barkat were bowled out for 155. Still they were ahead by 67 runs in first innings. Shubham Singh scored 40 for Al-Barkat taking them beyond 150 mark.
A low score in both innings had opened up a ray of hope for V.N.Sule vidyalaya to make a comeback. But even this time, they failed to keep Sardar brother’s quite with the ball and it was Rajesh Sardar, the younger of two brothers, picked up 4 wickets for just 15 runs. He was well supported by Mukund Sardar and Jahangir Ansari who took couple of wickets each.
As a result, V.N.Sule were bowled out for just 70 in 2nd innings and Al-Barkat had to score 4 runs to win the game. Without wasting any time, their openers scored those runs in 1st over itself and won it with a day to spare. Their coach seemed to be pretty happy with the performance their boys have put up. “It was a fantastic victory indeed, the main thing of this season’s campaign is that everyone is contributing equally. Such huge wins are results of great team efforts. Our batting looked little shaky as we could score only 155 but it is understandable in bowler dominated match like this. Having said that, we need to work on our batting and our strategies a little more as we are just a step away from winning our 3rd title in last 6 years,” said their coach Nafeez Khan.
But there is some uncertainty about when final and the other semifinal will be played. It is because of the complaint launched against Rizvi Springfield for playing with overaged player. The 2nd semi final was scheduled to start on 16th itself between Don Bosco
and Rizvi Springfield school. But the report is yet to be published by organizers regarding this complaint due to which that match has been postponed.
Al-Barkat though are in no hurry as they will get some good time for rest and for their preparation. But looking at their current momentum, it will be hard for any of the team playing in 2nd semi final to beat them.