In what turned out to be an evenly matched contest, National English School (Virar) came out trumps over Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vidyalaya (Vikhroli) with a 3-wicket victory in a league match of the MI Junior Interschool Cricket Tournament in Mumbai on Monday.

After electing to bat first, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vidyalaya managed a total of 198 runs at the loss of 7 wickets in their allotted 40 overs. Several middle-order batsmen got off to good starts with 6 of them crossing the 20-run mark, however it was only skipper Advit Tiwari that made it count as he went on to score a valiant knock of 53 runs. On the bowling front, Dev Lad took the charge as he ended up with figures of 3 for 45 and received support from Ashish Khedekar (2/33).

In the face of a formidable target of 199, hefty contributions from the middle order guided National English School to a 3-wicket victory. The chief architect of the chase was Arush Patade who scored a carefully crafted unbeaten half-century worth 58 runs and was ably supported by crucial cameos from Aarav Gautam (35), Shiva Singh (34) and Dev Lad (27 n.o).

Brief Scores:

Boys’ U-14:

• National English School (Virar) 199/7 in 35.5 overs (Arush Patade 58 n.o, Aarav Gautam 35, Shiva Singh 34, Dev Lad 27 n.o; Advit Tiwari 4/38, Sarthak Shinde 2/16) bt Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Vidyalaya (Vikhroli) 198/7 in 40 overs (Advit Tiwari 53, Akshay Akrikeri 27 n.o, Om Lokhande 25, Sanmit Kothmire 25, Aayush Chavan 23, Viraj Jadhav 21; Dev Lad 3/45, Ashish Khedekar 2/33).

• Modern English School (Chembur) 200/4 in 31.4 overs (Pugazh Sundarraj 51 n.o, Aryan K 34, Vedang Mishra 32, Nishad Parab 25; Aarav Yadav 2/30) bt Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English School (CSMT) 197/8 in 40 overs (Arhaan Syed 67, Arhaan Patel 30, Aarav Yadav 24; Lakshya Bhor 2/21, Nishad Parab 2/39, Vedang Mishra 2/46).