Played at the Union Cricket Academy, Wayle Nagar, it was the all important high intensity finals between two promising teams full of talented players who have fought their way hard to reach the finals namely IES Chandrakant Patkar Vidyalaya & KC Gandhi School. On winning the toss KC Gandhi elected to field first planning to bundle them out for a low total and chase down the score.
Made to bat first, IES school did a decent job as they made a defendable total of 234 runs in 84 overs. Though most of the batsman failed to convert their 10’s and 20’s, Pratham Nambiar at no.4 top scored with a solid looking 58 off 102 balls which helped them cross the 200 run mark. Pratham smashed 9 fours and looked confident for his stay at the crease while Parth Wad also looked solid for his 38. Off-spinner Atharva Dikholkar was the most impressive of the bowlers scalping 5/49 in 20 overs which included 6 maidens. Skipper Jaycool also bowled well.
Chasing 235 is not an impossible task but when you have talented bowlers to defend, it certainly is. KC Gandhi school were all out for 152 runs in 55 overs on the back of some stunning bowling by Atharva Datar. Jaycool Girase scored a fighting knock of 42 but he lacked support from the other end. Right arm leg spinner Atharva Datar was the pick of the bowlers coming up with a superlative and a match winning bowling spell of 6/58 in 22 overs with 7 maidens. Not only did Atharva kept on taking wickets at regular intervals but he also did not allow the opposition to score runs freely which eventually reaped rewards for him as well as his team. IES C.P Vidyalaya won the match by 82 runs and win the finals of the tournament lifting the Ghantali Cup on the back of some excellent bowling by Atharva and a solid fifty by Pratham coupled with collective team efforts throughout the tournament.
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Played between Greater Mumbai Police & RBI at the Central Maidan, Thane, it was the all important finals between two big teams where in RBI won the toss and elected to bat first with an aim of making a big 1st innings total.
Batting first, RBI failed to capitalize as they were bundled out for mere 128runs where in Tejas(35) and Rajesh(28) at the middle order saved the noise. Right arm medium pacer Santosh Shinde was the pick of the bowlers as he took 4/28 to dent the opposition’s batting line up. Santosh bowled with nice accuracy coupled with amazing line and length which reaped rewards for him as well as his team.
Chasing a modest total of 129, Mumbai police won the match in style by 9wkts as opener Hanuman Poojari scored a superlative 55 off 42balls(6fours,3sixes) to set the tone for the chase while no.3 batsman Rohit Pol stayed unbeaten finishing off the chase with a 49ball 57* (6fours, 3sixes) to seal his team’s spot in the finals. It was a great match where in Greater Mumbai police dominated right from the start.
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Same time last year in Dec-January-feb, a run fest had begun from the bat of Ved, he smashed 4double centuries and even after that kept he on scoring runs consistently and now comes the month of feb in 2018 and he again starts the year on a similar note.
Played between Union Cricket Academy & Friends CC at the Dombivali Gymkhana, Union C.A won the toss and elected to field first with an aim of restricting Friends CC to a low total. However, Union Ca A were not aware about Friends CC’s prolific opener who has a tendency to convert his 50’s into hundreds and then hundreds into big hundreds. Opening the innings, Vedprakash Jaiswal scored a very solid looking 104 off 103balls which included 14fours and 3sixes. Ved whose natural style is usually attacking tried keeping calm and set his eyes in first before he started scoring freely. Apart from him, Rugved More was the second highest scorer with 55* off mere 25balls (4fours,4sixes). Rugved who is another promising name made sure the eyes were on him too with his electrifying knock which eventually took the team total to 254/5 in 40 overs.
Defending 255, Friends CC restricted Union C.A to just 153/all out in 33.4 overs. Off spinner Sachin Rao was the most impressive bowler in the match coming up with match winning bowling figures of 5/29 in 8overs. Sachin bowled in the right areas with impressive line and length while he was also turning the ball nicely. Friends CC won the match by 101runs where in Sachin and Ved stood out with their individual performances.
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Played at the United Cricket Club, Cross Maidan, it was the all important match between two really promising teams namely Shastri Hall Cricket Club and Blue Star Cricket Club where in Blue Star won the toss and elected to bat first considering they have a really good batting line up.
Batting first, Blue Star were struggling at one point after the top order failed to capitalize with their scores reading 36/4 and 72/5 until their experienced all-rounder Rakesh Naik came to the rescue. Rakesh who already proved his mettle in Mumbai cricket with a consistent season both with the bat as well as with the ball in Kanga League made sure he introduced himself to the opponents who were not aware about him. Rakesh brought his team back into the game with a match winning 115* off 127deliveries which included 8fours and 8sixes to anchor his team towards a defendable total of 219/8 in 45 overs. At one point where his team was not looking good for more than 150, Rakesh helped his team make a comeback.
If that was not all, while defending an achievable target of 220, Blue Star CC restricted Shastri Hall Boys to just 171 runs all out. All-rounder Rakesh Naik yielded magic with the ball too after a superlative ton taking a superb 5wkt haul. Rakesh came up with excellent bowling figures of 5/17 in 7.1 overs with his left arm spin which steered his team towards a thumping win. Bluetstar won the match by 48runs and it was certainly their star all-rounder Rakesh Naik who grabbed everyone’s attention!
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“Mumbai ka accurate bowler” contest organized by NATARAJ PENS in collaboration with Cricketgraph THE GRAND FINALE will be conducted on Sunday, February 11th at Kandiali’s iThinkSportz Academy. The competition has already garnered tremendous response at the Kharghar, Kandivali, Bhayendar, Kalyan and Mulund Chapters with hundreds of participants at each location for the coveted title of Mumbai’s accurate bowler. Now is the time for the GRAND FINALE and to decide who is Mumbai ka Accurate bowler presented by NATARAJ PENS and Cricketgraph.com
DATE: 11th February 2018, Sunday
Venue: iThinkSportz Academy, Kamla Vihar Sportz Club Ground, Near Kapol Vidyanidhi School, Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali West.
Reporting Time: 8:30 AM
On the spot Registrations Closes at : 9: 00 AM
This GRAND FINALE is open for all the School and college students irrespective of the fact that they have participated or not participated in the previous chapters. So practice hard and do participate again or for the first time on Sunday, 11th Feb. The Finalists and winners from previous chapters will get direct entry into the second round.
As we have been doing at Chapter events, the winner and finalists will be showered with cricket goodies from RM Sports and certificates from NATARAJ and cricketgraph.com.
RM Sports that has expertise in manufacturing and trading of cricket equipment, will be encouraging the winners with English willow cricket bats, cricket balls, cricket kit bags and many more cricket goodies. So, it is very much evident that there is everything for grabs for the players.
An invitation tournament for 8 teams has kickstarted at Dombivali where players from different corners of Mumbai will come under one roof to give their best. A great initiative for sure as Shankar Patil Tournament 2018 will become a nice platform for various teams of Mumbai to come and showcase their talent with full potential.
It’s basically a 40-40 tournament where the matches are conducted with 40overs per side. 8 teams from different corners will fight it out where eventually one will be crowned the winner at the end of the tournament. Chief guest Mr.Ravindra Chavan (State Minister) and former Indian Cricket player Mr.Nilesh Kulkarni were present at the opening ceremony amongst a host of other dignitaries from the Mumbai Police to kick start the tournament with all the glory.
The name of the 8 teams who are in the tournament-
- Vasant Vihar School- Thane
- Boys Cricket Club-Dombivali
- Union Cricket Academy-Kalyan
- Vengsarkar Sports Academy-Mumbai
- New Hind Sports Club-Mumbai
- Friends Cricket Club-Dombivali
- Sanjivani Sports Club-Kandivali
- S Kulkani Sports Club-Mumbai
As we can see, some of the most promising teams consisting really talented players have participated in the tournament. Hence the competition will be fun and intense where we will get to see a lot of close matches and amazing individual performances in the coming days!
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This Sunday witnessed two intense semi-finals where 4 of the most prolific teams of Mumbai cricket clashed with each other to seal their spot in the finals. The 1st match was between MIG and Parkophene Cricketers at the Karnatak Sporting Association while the other semi-final was between Mumbai Police Gymkhana and DY Patil at the police gymkhana ground.
At Cross Maidan, Parkophene Cricketers won the toss and elected to field first. MIG batting first hardly looked deterred when they were made to bat first. The top order chipped in with 30’s and 40’s but it was Siddarth Chitnis at the middler order coming at no.5 who saved the day. Right handed Siddarth smashed a superlative 123* off mere 98balls which took his team towards a very defendable total. Siddarth delivered when it was needed and it speaks a lot about his cricketing character and resilience at the crease. Chitnis literally took on the bowlers smashing 9fours and 6sixes in his unbeaten knock which helped MIG post 289/7 in 45 overs. Chasing 290, Parkophene boys did experienced the pressure of chasing at more than 7runs per over as they were all out for 217runs where in Salman Ahmed (47) and Jiniv Joshi (45) looked impressive. Balkrushna Shirke was the pick of the bowlers with 3/39 as MIG won the match by 72runs qualifying for the all important finals.
In the other semi-final at the Police Gymkhana, Mumbai Police won the toss and elected to bowl first wherein DY Patil scored 254/7 in 45 overs. Opener Shoaib Shaikh(64) & Sarvesh Damle (81) played crucial knocks where the rest of the batsman were finding it a bit difficult to score runs. Off-spinner Chirag Khurana was the pick of the bowlers with 3/35 from Mumbai Police. Chasing 255, Mumbai Police were off to a flying start with openers Agni Chopra (47) and Humayun Hirapure (65) setting the tone for the innings with a 99run stand. All-rounder Chirag who took 3wkts also chipped in with a valiant 41 at no.3 followed by 20’s and 30’s by the rest of the batsman which helped Mumbai Police Gymkhana win the semi-finals by 4wkts.
Two big wins for two big teams which will eventually lead to a thrilling finale to watch out for!
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Played at the DPC- Dadar Parsi Colony Gymkhana Ground, two really talented teams namely Mumbai Cricket Club and Rizvi School (Bandra) took on each other where in MCC won the toss and elected to bat first since they have a good batting line up.
However MCC were skittled put for mere 88runs in 19.2 overs where in their premier batsman Yashasvi scored an aggressive 31 while Arya Pal top scored with 35. Apart from these 2, not a single batsman managed to score runs in two digits thanks to Rizvi’s most promising spinner Aman Manihar. Aman bamboozled the batsman with his accurate left arm spin coming up with one of the best bowling figures in the tournament so far. Aman took 6/5 in 4 overs with 2maidens which was nothing but really impressive and commendable. Aman kept on bowling in the right areas which reaped rewards for him as well as his team.
Rizvi boys chased down the score in mere 16.4 overs and won the match by 3wkts. MCC did gave a tough fight with the ball and did gave some early jitters but eventually Rizvi surpassed the target where in Shubham Mistry and Alsaad Shaikh chipped in with 20’s. It was a great match fought by both the teams where in Aman Manihar was declared ‘man of the match’ for his superb bowling spell.
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Cricket, in many ways, exemplifies life it is said. No dream is ever chased alone. Seldom does individual brilliance best a collective effort of 11 determined men. And yet, in a country increasingly obsessed with idolizing once-in-a-generation superstars, a comprehensive team effort is often not given its due credit.
Cricketgraph, In association with ‘Fast & Up Sports Nutrition’, launched a campaign to recognise & celebrate these team performances in local cricket. Various competitions across Mumbai were part of our assessment process, whereby performances were judged based on parameters such as team effort, it’s impact on the eventual outcome of the game and the importance of a game.
Al Barkat Malik English School from Kurla were crowned the rightful winners of the ‘Fast & Up’ award basis their performance in the Harris Shield final played against Swami Vivekanand International School. Put into bat, Al Barkat posted a fighting 374/9 declared, courtesy of classy half centuries from Ankit Yadav, Saumil Malandkar and Himanshu Singh. In reply, Swami Vivekanand school crumbled under the scoreboard pressure, losing wickets at regular intervals to be bowled out for 179 in their first innings. Saud Mansoori did the star turn with the ball, collecting a fifer. He was well supported by Naufil Rozani, who bagged a couple. With a massive first-innings lead secured, Al Barkat were 32/2 in their second essay at the end of the game. They were crowned champions by virtue of the first-innings lead.
The winning team was rewarded with a supply of Sports Nutrition supplies from ‘Fast & Up’, which would surely be of immense value for these young athletes in supplementing their skills with improved energy and fitness levels.
Head coach Mr.Nafees Khan and captain Harsh Mugaveera were ecstatic on winning the trophy while also acknowledging the contribution made by Fast & Up and Cricketgraph towards talent promotion. We would like to thank Fast & Up for their continued support in this initiative and wish the partnership more success in the future.
The over-whelming response continues for this initiative by NATARAJ PENS and this time it was at Mulund at PT’s academy. The nets were ready, pitch rolled, the registration desk ready and as always we saw hundreds of aspiring cricketers coming here to give their best.
The start to the event was a bit worrying as initially the bowlers were finding it hard to hit the stumps but the second half was quite a comeback where the bowlers finally got into the groove. There were 113 players who registered for the 1st round but eventually only 32 made it to the 2nd round. In the 3rd round, only 13 bowlers were qualified who while only 3 players made it to the Knockout round.
Then came this boy Pranay Gavande- 18year old right arm fast bowler from KJ Somaiya who left everyone shocked and impressed with his superlative accuracy. The best part about this fast bowler was not only was he hitting the deck really hard and generating good pace for his age but he also smashed the stumps in all the three rounds in single attempts. In 3balls, he was tested to the hilt but he emerged out to be a winner. Pranay bowled 6 deliveries out of which he smashed the timber 4 times out of which twice was single stumps (the itip gel pen powered stump) which is really difficult. In the final knockout round too where he was competing with 3bowlers, Pranay nailed it with really impressive accuracy winning the knockouts in style.
Pranay was gifted a Winners Certificate from NATARAJ PENS , NATARAJ PENS goodie and stunning high quality batting pads from sports equipment sponsor RM Sports by the founder Rajeev Mishra. Once again the success story continues as this initiative by NATARAJ PENShas helped in spotting talented bowlers from different corners of Mumbai.