Om Kantak’s 100* & Ved Kerkar’s 88 help Antonio D’Silva school reach finals of Giles Shield

It was a crucial semi-final match between Dr.Antonio D’silva school vs St. Xaviers. The match witnessed some amazing moments & performances and it was a good day for the Antonio team as everything had gone in their favor.

After winning the toss, Antonio school decided to bat first as that was what their coach had advised.  The team was off to a shaky start where they lost their first 4 wickets under quick succession but Xavier’s were unaware of what was kept in store for them. Two talented batsman stuck to the crease and played wonderful innings to take their team total to 277/5 in 40 overs. Right handed Om Kantak scored a magnificent hundred coming in at no.4. Om completely acted as a savior for his team when wickets were tumbling.  His innings was full of patience and class which included 11 fours and a huge six. On the other side was Ved Kerkar whose batting style was complete contrast to Om’s. While Om was all patience and class in his 100* off 131 balls, Ved scored 88 off just 53 balls(17 fours) where he tore apart the bowlers at will. Ved was outright counter-attacking the bowlers and kept the momentum going along with Om. Both the players stitched a match winning partnership of 183 runs which took the game away from St. Xaviers.

Chasing 278 is not tough but it is not easy either & Xavier’s faced the same trickiness facing the Da Silva bowlers. St. Xaviers were all out for 131 in just 34.5 overs and handed over a big win of 143 runs to Dr. Antonio Da Silva school. Ronak waghe(42) was the only one who looked solid against the Antonio bowlers. Off spinner Raj bowler well for his 2/37 & so did Yadnesh jadhav with his 2/25. However, it was Soham nalavade who was pick of the bowlers picking up three wickets (out of which 2 were clean bowled) with his pace.

Om Kantak who scored a great century also followed it up with a wicket (1/24) which made him ‘man of the match” Both the kids look promising and it was a good team performance too which will give them a lot of confidence in the finals.