One-man army, Yaseen Shaikh topped scored for Al Barkaat Malik Mohd English School (ABMES), Kurla with 71 as his team posted 167 in their first essay against Swami Vivekananad International H S, (SVISG) Borivali on day-one of the three-day Giles Shield inter-school final, at the CCI ground here on Tuesday.
The one-down batsmen faced 120 deliveries and came back on to the field and bowled 48 balls (6 overs) of which 30 were deliveries were dot balls and took two wickets, to put the fight back on their opponents, as Swami Vivekananad International ended 39 for two at the draw of stumps.
Defending champions Al Barkaat, minus five of their regular players, who are in injured list, their coach Naseef Khan is quite happy with what his boys have done. "These boys have done a good job and I want my bowlers, especially Yaseen to do the damage," said Khan while talking to Free Press after the day game.
Opener Aaryan Bhadane did his bit adding 49 runs for the second wicket with Yaseen, and later resurgence by Shourya Desai who remained unbeaten on 29.
Yaseen, who had starred for Al Barkaat with the bowl with figures of 6-24 in the semi-finals, was once again on the song after he send two SVISG batsmen in the eighth over to reduce the Borivali side for 12-2.
However, Aryan Sakpal joined forces with opener Krishna Patil to forge an unbeaten partnership of 27 runs for third wicket. Aryan scored 15 from 39 balls laced with three boundaries, while Krishna on the other side had a defensive approach in his 66-ball 12 runs knock.
Despite a brilliant all-round performance in the day, Yaseen was disappointed with himself for missing his century by 29-run margin. "I attempted a pull-shot on a short ball and got caught at mid-wicket, I shouldn't have played that shot," the 14-year-old expressed his regrets.
Yaseen felt his teammates made the same mistake of playing poor shots, else they could have easily reached the 200-mark figure on a surface where the ball was easily coming on the bat.
Brief scores: Al Barkaat 167 (Yaseen Shaikh 71, Shourya Desai 29*; Pranay Kapadia 3-34, Aayush Vaity 3-38) lead by 128 runs against Swami Vivekananad 39-2 (Aryan Sakpal 15*, Krishna Patil 12*; Yaseen Shaik 2-7).
