Aryan's all-round show helps St Paul's defeat Lakshdham

St Paul's Aryan Kale during the match against Lakshdham at Islam Gymkhana yesterday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

St Paul's (Dadar) all-rounder Aryan Kale had to skip his team's practice sessions for the last few months to focus on his Class X studies. However, he did not seem to be out of practice yesterday, as he claimed four wickets and then scored the crucial runs to help his team register a one-wicket win over Lakshdham (Goregaon) in a first-round match of the U-16 inter-school Harris Shield Plate Division tournament at the Islam Gymkhana.

Choosing to bat, Lakshdham were bundled out for 89 in 31 overs thanks to a disciplined bowling effort by St Paul's leg-spinner Aryan (4-16) and left-arm spinner Pallav Dandekar's (4-17). Opener Prateek Pusalkar's 29 and 20 extras, off which 17 came from wide balls, helped the Goregaon school cross the 50 mark. During the chase, the Dadar side lost its top five batsmen for 41, but K Devansh (19) and Aryan (16) displayed patience and determination to weather the storm. Aryan's 40-ball knock was laced with three boundaries. He was out caught-behind off left-arm pacer Shrey Parikh, with 10 runs required for victory.

The last pair of Aayush Hatkar (7 not out) and Varad Kadam (4 not out) saw their team through to victory. Lakhdham off-spinner Rhushikesh Keer took three for 21. "I missed a lot of practice sessions due to my studies, so I was a bit nervous before this match. But I'm happy that I contributed to the win today. It would have been niece to have stayed unbeaten and finished the game," Aryan told mid-day later.

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