MUMBAI, FEB 12: It was another emotional moment for Ramakant Achrekar at the Wankhede Stadium this morning. The ageing coach, credited with churning out some of the best cricketing heroes for the country, couldn't control his emotions after Shardashram English High School wrested the Harris Shield, upstaging Balmohan Vidyamandir in the summit clash.Achrekar's tears of joy were understandable as Shardashram had managed to lay their hands on the symbol of supremacy in inter-school cricket after a three-year lay-off. The concluding day turned out to be an anti-climax as Balmohan failed to put up a fight, surrendering tamely within an hour into the day's play. Shardashram ended up winners by a convincing margin of 54 runs.Needing another 105 runs off 23 overs with five wickets remaining, Balmohan suffered a crippling blow early in the day when dependable southpaw Ameya Desai was run out after a bad mix-up. Desai made 70 (125b, 131m, 9x4).Thereafter, Harshad Rawle (22) and Rohan Mayekar (11) offered briefresistance before falling prey to the spinners as a motley group of Shardashram supporters went cock-a-hoop.Off-spinner Sameer Shaikh (3-42) did most of the damage to end up with an impressive match haul of 9-101.The 70-year-old Achrekar, who diligently watched proceedings from day one despite his ill-health, refused to compare the present Shardashram team with their predecessors, saying: ``every triumph has given me happiness.'' The Dronacharya award winner, however, credited the team's success to Naresh Churi, the new coach of the school, who incidentally was one of Achrekar's wards.Commenting on the team's resurgence, Churi said, ``I simply inculcated a strong sense of discipline in the team, which was lacking when I took over.'' Skipper Soham Dalvi, who has been playing in the tournament since four years, opined there was a stark improvement in the fielding standards which went a long way in paving success for the team. The 15-year-old Dalvi was adjudged man of the match and best batsman of thefinal for his innings of 93 & 85.Pawan Kumar Bhosle, who revived Balmohan's hopes with a seven-wicket haul yesterday was declared the best bowler.Balmohan, who had finished runners-up last year had to be content with the same position this year too. Coach Amar Vaidya felt his boys ``probably lack in match temperament.'' Dwelling upon it further, Vaidya said, ``it could be attributed to the fact that my schoolboys compete only in such inter-school matches unlike other teams where the boys play club matches too. Besides, almost every year we end up fielding a new team. Take the case of the present team. As many as ten of them would be passing out as all of them are in Std X.''Interestingly, Balmohan's only Harris Shield success came in the 100th year two seasons ago.ScoreboardShardashram (1st innings): 294Balmohan (1st innings): 212Shardashram (2nd innings): 175Balmohan (2nd innings; overnight 153-5): Vinayak Mulay b Nayar 0, Kiran Mayekar lbw b Dongre 8, Nitesh Vichare lbw bDongre 16, Aditya Tausalkar lbw b Shaikh 52, Ameya Desai run out 70, Pawan Bhosle lbw b Chavan 0, Rajiv Patil run out 1, Harshad Rawle st Pradyosh Mayekar b Patkar 22, Rohan Mayekar c&b Shaikh 11, Amol Jadhav lbw b Shaikh 12, Vinay Mungekar not out 0; Extras: (b4, lb5, w2) 11. Total (all out in 67.2 overs) 203Fall Of Wickets: 1-3 2-26 3-27 4-150 5-153 6-155 7-156 8-181 9-202Bowling: Abhishek Nayar 7-1-12-1, Soham Dalvi 6-0-13-0, Amit Patkar 12-2-51-1, Kaushal Dongre 11-4-26-2, Sameer Shaikh 15.2-3-42-3, Pranab Chavan 15-3-44-1, Shirish Mandrekar 1-0-6-0Result: Shardashram English won by 53 runs.
