IES New English left-arm spinner Nikash Nerurkar claims fifer

Nikash Nerurkar. Pic/Gordon D’Costa

IES New English School's (Bandra) left-arm spinner Nikash Nerurkar (5-29) tormented the VK Krishna Menon Academy (Borivli) batsmen, and dismissed them for a measly 114 runs in 36.1 overs on the first day of their two-day Group ‘A' quarter-final Round-2 league match of the MSSA inter-schools Harris Shield boys' U-16 tournament at the Islam Gymkhana on Monday.

After skipper Atharva Dhond opted to field, his bowlers justified his decision by getting the opposition batter out cheaply. Left-arm medium pacer Yuvraj Desai and medium pacer Dhariya Shah got the initial breakthroughs by taking the wickets of both openers - Krishna Menon with just 27 runs on the board and later Nikash, 14. The bowlers were unplayable and with solid support from leg-break bowler Dhaviet Prakash (3-21), ran through the rival batting.

Middle-order batsmen Pratham Dabholkar 30 runs (75 balls, 6x4s) and Sameer Singh 39 runs (46 balls, 9x4s) stemmed the rot and ensured their innings crossed the three-figure mark.

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Later, the IES New English innings suffered an early setback as opening batsman Indrajeet Shinde, after scoring just six runs, was sent back with only 10 runs on the board. That was the only success for the Borivli boys as the other opener Yuvraj Mali and Atharva batted confidently to score quite freely and at stumps took the team to 114 for the loss of only one wicket. The Bandra schoolboys, who unfortunately lost the previous round after they had conceded a one-run first innings lead to Springfield HS (Khar), are now assured of taking the vital first innings lead when play resumes on Tuesday.

Atharva was batting on 63 with Yuvraj keeping him company with a patient 40 runs when play was called off for the day.