Sardar brothers’ heroics put Al-Barkat in command
It was one of the busy day at Times of India ground on Azad maidan as 1st semi final of this year’s Harris Shield took off on Tuesday. V.N.Sule vidyalaya and Al-Barkat, two of the most prolific teams in Harris shield are up against each other in this all important game. Al-Barkat was the top team in B group while V.N.Sule vidyalaya made it to semis by standing out as best team in D group in Elite division of this tournament.
Two heavy weight teams playing each other means that everyone was expecting a good contest on day 1 here at the Times of India cricket ground. After winning the toss, V.N.Sule opted to bat first in quest of putting up some good runs on road. However, soon they would have regretted their decision as they collapsed for just a score of 88. “None of our batsman could hang in there and I think that’s where we made a mistake. Their bowlers bowled in good areas and our batsman should have played a waiting game,” said V.N.Sule’s coach.
The star performers for Al-Barkat was the duo of Sardar brothers, Mukund Sardar and Rajesh Sardar. Mukund, a right arm quickie, bowled a magnificent spell while claiming 5 wickets for just 17 runs. V.N.Sule batsmen neither had a relief from other end too. Rajesh Sardar, Mukund’s younger brother bowled his left arm spin pretty well, supporting his brother’s efforts from the other end. He took 3 wickets from 17 runs. Hence as a result, V.N.Sule vidyalaya collapsed and failed even to reach a three figure mark.
“I must give credit to Mukund and Rajesh. They bowled pretty well in tandem. There was a healthy competition between them for picking up wickets. It is always good to have such players in your team. Mukund got a well-deserved fifer, he hardly bowled any lose delivery and often stick to good length spot,” said Mr.Nafeez Khan who is the coach of Al-Barkat.
Al-Barkat had fantastic outing during their group stage matches. “We won all 3 of our matches in group stage by an innings margin. Thus, we got bonus point in all of these games. We were pretty much high on confidence coming into semi final. I am very happy with the kind of performance our boys have put up today. In last 5 years we have won Harris shield on 2 occasions. We are keen to make it 50% win record by winning it this year to make it 3 out of 6, which is quite phenomenal according to me. We have bowled well and we have taken first innings lead as well. We just need to carry on from here tomorrow. Some of our batsmen like Mukund Sardar, Mantosh Yadav and Shabaz Kureshi have been performing really well in last few matches. Overall, we are giving our best as a team and hence we are getting fruitful results,” added the coach.
At the end of day 1, Al-Barkat are 91 for 4 with Thapa playing on 31. Earlier, Pushkar Sharma made handy 26 before getting out. V.N.Sule vidyalaya have an arduous task in front of them to win it from this situation. Looking at Al-Barkat’s form, the spectators can already sense yet another innings win for them.