His father is a vegetable vendor while his mother sells tender coconuts near the Borvali railway station but he dishes out all kinds of treatment to the bowlers with his bat.
Son of street vendors, Pratik Gawli is the hot currency on the cricket field
MUMBAI: His father is a vegetable vendor while his mother sells tender coconuts near the Borvali railway station but he dishes out all kinds of treatment to the bowlers with his bat.
For added measure, he adds in his spin bowling as a bonus to his team - Swami Vivekananda School. This is Pratik Gawli, a tenth standard student, whose shift from Marathi to English school has paid off.
After batting for the whole day on Tuesday for his maiden hundred in Harris Shield, Gawli sent Shardashram (English) packing with an eight-wicket haul on Wednesday.
Pratik, though, gives all the credit to his parents.
“It is because of my parents. They have supported me right from the day I wanted to play this game. And, off course, my coach Dinesh (Raju) Lad who has been with me since the last three years,” says Pratik who is now looking forward for a ten-wicket haul or more in the group C match.
And Pratik has no qualms with his parents humble background. “No,” he says. “It is a part of each one means of earning money. And I am proud to be their son,” Pratik reveals his feelings. If at all, it has made him more determined to find more success and glory in the future. “I will give them back for all their support,” he promises.
A day after cornering the limelight with his century at ground No 8 at the Cross maidan, Pratik continued to hog some more attention, this time with the ball.
“I did get some support from the wicket, and at times the batsmen too committed errors,” says the modest Pratik who bowled a very long and extended spell of 21.1 overs spell, in which he claimed eight wickets.
About the turn that the offie opted for in his life, coach Lad reveals: “He approached me when he wanted to changed his school. I advised him to join Shardashram Marathi, but he also insisted that he wanted to be with me.”
Lad has also coached international Rohit Sharma.
Brief scores: Group A: Rizvi 228 & 141-3 (Shabir Shaikh 36, Ugrasen Singh 36*) vs IES, Bandra 129 (Mitesh Rane 37; Avinash Upadhya 4-28); M D Bhatia 156 and 115 (Ronish Shemlani 7-40) bt Don Bosco, Matunga 89 and 132 (Shankar Ravindran 29; Bhavik Joshi 7-28)
Group B: Raja Shivaji 207 bt C Gracious 56 & 65 (Yashwant Parab 5-17, Rohit Derber 3-11) by innings and 86 runs; Parle Tilak 167 and 10-1 vs Hansraj Morarji 293 (R Pandit 45, Peygan Mishra 74; Nachiket Sant 3-95).
Group C: S.V (Borivali) 267 (Pratik Gawli 105; Shanu Yadav 4-35) vs Shardashram 97 (Pratik Gawli 8-28) and 29-3; Shardashram (Marathi) 70 and 112 (Aniket Katkar 33; Sayyad Anwar Ali 5-25) lost to Anjuman-I-Islam 188 (Aniket Katkar 5-44) by an innings and 6 runs.
Group D: Fatima 80 and 66 (Siddhant Vaity 4-21, Pranav Rane 3-10) lost to VN Sule (Dadar) 148 (Akash Dharankar 49; Umang Parikh 4-38) by innings and 2 runs; Anjuman (Fort) 133 and 108-8 (Kaustubh Kolambkar 4-39, Tanmay Mayekar 3-12) vs Balmohan 244 (Kaustubh Kolambkar 51, Kunal Gawand 60, Saurabh Gosavi 35; Asjad Karnekar 4-77, Numan Khan 4-24).
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