With 39 wickets fallen in three days, holders Al Barkaat need 38 to win, while Rizvi require one wicket to regain title on a turning track
Fourteen-year-old Faiz Rathod must be a proud boy. After all, Al Barkaat’s opener is the only batsman to score a half-century (50, 99 balls, 125 mins) in the ongoing four-day Harris Shield final between his school and Rizvi Springfield (Bandra).
The Sassanian Cricket Club pitch, Azad Maidan, where the title clash is being played, saw the fall of as many as 39 wickets in the first three days. In fact, 13 wickets fell on Thursday (Day 3).
The Kurla school need 38 runs to win with one wicket in hand going into Day 4.
Rizvi were bowled out for 159 in their second innings on Day 3, with off-spinner Meer Rizvi being the star bowler for defending champions Al Barkaat, claiming 6/49.
With a target of 207 for victory, left-arm spinner Shreyansh Bogar (4/65) and leggie Yashasvi Jaiswal (3/36) put Rizvi in command, reducing Al Baarkat to 169/9.
The two teams, however, don’t seem to care much about the result of the tournament, which is being organised by Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) under the aegis of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).
Why? Because they feel that final like this between big teams should have been played on the best grounds and wickets and not on a ground that has a poor wicket.
The pitch turned square from Day One and it was more about surviving for batsmen than scoring. There was no contest between the bat or ball, rather, it was the latter which did most of the talking.
“On this pitch, you cannot tell your batsmen anything if they fail to score. They could get out to any bowler. I mean, if the pitch is turning square from Day One, how can you expect good batsmen to score?” said Raju Pathak, coach of Rizvi Springfield.
Al Barkaat coach, Nafees Khan, too was unhappy with the quality of the wicket “We qualified for the tournament almost two months ago. The boys were waiting for so long to play the final. It’s their summer vacation now, but still all of them showed up. The MSSA told us that the final will start on April 26. On April 15, which was a Friday, they told us that the final was to be played on 19th. As a result, we didn’t get time to practice. I’m not making excuses for anything, but this is what happens, and something needs to be done about it.”
Rathod, who is in standard eighth said they had to concentrate on building partnerships. “We couldn’t play any big shots, but had to settle for ones and two.”
MSSA secretary Sebastian Fernandes told dna that they did their best to arrange for a good ground. “Through the MCA, we approached the Cricket Club of India (CCI), Bombay Gymkhana and other grounds, but they said that they were organising summer coaching camps so they couldn’t give us the ground for four days. The MCA is in charge of allotting the ground, and we just heeded whatever they said.”
Brief Scores: (Day 3): Rizvi Springfield 210 & 159 in 43.5 overs (S Siddhique 56, S Pandey 32, ; M Rizvi 6/49) vs Al Barkaat 163 & 169/9 in 68 overs (F Rathod 50, A Khan 36; S Bogar 4/65, Y Jaiswal 3/36)
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