Soham, Sanket steal show

Shardashram English claim opening day honours
Shardashram Eng (1st innings)… 294-6
Balmohan (1st innings)…18-2
Skipper Soham Dalvi and Sanket Mirgal kept the Shardashram English flag flying aloft at the Wankhede Stadium this afternoon. The 15-year-old duo strung a 151-run alliance in 34.5 overs to power their school to a commanding position on the opening day of the four-day Harris Shield summit clash against Balmohan Vidyamandir. After posting 294 for six in the stipulated 75 overs, Soham put forth all his resources and prised out two wickets to culminate a highly satisfying day for Shardashram. When stumps were drawn, Balmohan were struggling at 18-2.

Put into bat after Balmohan won the toss, Shardashram suffered an early reversal when prolific opener Shirish Mandrekar (4) departed with just 14 on the board. However, Soham found an able ally in Sanket and the duo mended the damage with an authoritative display.

Though Soham was let off when on 23 and 34, he hung on tocompile 93 (141b, 179m, 14×4). Sanket too matched his skipper while registering the second highest score of the innings. He made 73 (121b, 116m, 10×4).

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Soham, in fact, has been among the runs not only in this tourney but also in the under-14 Giles Shield in which he notched his best (238). He extended it to the Harris Shield, recording 144 in the quarter-final against St Mary’s, and followed it up with 60 in the semi-final against IES English. Sanket too hasn’t been far behind scoring 79 in the prequarters and 70 in the quarters.

After the duo fell trying to force the pace, Abhishek Nayar (42) and Sameer Shaikh (31) continued to thwart the rivals with a 59-run association off 13.5 overs for the fourth wicket.