Panaji: Mushtifund High School beat St Joseph Institute by a narrow margin of four runs in a low-scoring final of GCA’s President Cup U-14 cricket tournament, at Panjim Gymkhana ground here on Saturday.
Put into bat, Mushtifund High School were all out for 123 in 36 overs. Their captain Naveen Kumar scored more than half of the team total, and was stranded at the other end with an unbeaten 65 runs off 74 balls, which included 12 hits to the fence. Shaurya Chodankar (13) and Pramay Prabhu (12) also entered double digits. The second-higest contribution to the total, came in the form of extras, numbering 23.
St Joseph Institute captain Sarvambh Naik was the pick of the bowling attack with figures of 4/ 32. Pranav Pedenkav and Mangesh took two wickets each.
In reply, St Joseph Institute were bowled out for 119 runs in 35.5 overs. Sarvambh Naik scored 39 runs off 61 balls (4×4) while Yuvraj Dabolker made 34 runs off 71 balls (3×4). Vicky Akhade(14) also got into double figures.
Although the extras amounted to 18 runs in St Joseph Institute total, in the low-scoring thriller; Mushtifund bowlers Shaurya Chodankar (3/16), Atharv Deshbhandhari (3/34), Naveen Kumar (1/26 ) and Yatvesh Morajkar (1/23), did the primary task of picking up wickets pretty well, to bowl the Cujira-based school team to victory.
