Hamza, Shahid half-tons help Anjuman dominate Day 1

Hamza Khan; (right) Shahid Khan celebrates his half-century at Brabourne yesterday. Pics/Satej Shinde

Contrasting half-centuries from opener Hamza Khan (64) and lower middle-order batsman Shahid Khan (50) helped Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English High School (Fort) post an impressive 267 before being bowled out by Modern English School (Chembur) on Day One of the three-day final of the MSSA Harris Shield cricket tournament at Brabourne Stadium here on Monday.

On a true batting surface that offered little for the bowlers, Anjuman recovered well after opting to bat and losing early wickets, as Hamza held the innings together backed by some enterprising lower middle-order batting. Hamza, who struck 10 boundaries during his watchful 122-ball knock, forged a key partnership of 61 for the third wicket with Arhaan Patel (27). The other key contributor for Anjuman was skipper Abdurrahman Khan (34) followed by Shahid, who looked extremely good in his entertaining sixty-ball knock that was punctuated with four boundaries.

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Left-arm spinner Vivaan Jobaputra (4-71) was the only notable bowling performance for Modern English, who would clearly feel that the opening day drifted away from them in the final session where they were unable to check the flow of runs from Anjuman's lower order. "I'm quite pleased with the way I batted, but I should've scored a hundred, so that's a bit disappointing. It's a good surface to bat on and quite difficult for the bowlers. The contributions by the lower order have helped us reach a competitive total," Hamza told mid-day after the day's play.

Brief scores
Anjuman-I-Islam 267 all out in 79.1 overs (Hamza Khan 64, Shahid Khan 50, Abdurrahman Khan 34, Arhaan Patel 27, Prabhat Pandey 25; Vivaan Jobanputra 4-71) v Modern English School