MSSA U-16: SVIS girls win schools cricket crown

SVIS (Borivli) girls celebrate winning the MSSA U-16 cricket final vs St Josephu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s (Bandra) at Azad Maidan yesterday

Riding on Gargi Talpade's quick-fire 25 helped Swami Vivekanand International (Borivli) won the Mumbai Schools Sports Association Late Manoramabai Apte Trophy girls U-16 inter-school cricket title after a gap of four years yesterday.

SVIS (Borivli) girls celebrate winning the MSSA U-16 cricket final vs St Joseph's (Bandra) at Azad Maidan yesterday. PIC/ Suresh Karkera

The Borivli school beat reigning champions St Joseph's Convent (Bandra) by four wickets at Azad Maidan in yesterday's final.
Swami Vivekanand's spin duo of Amruta Parab (off spin) and Aarti Yadav (leg spinner) took 4-16 and 4-27 respectively to bowl out the Bandra school for 66 in just 15.5 overs.

Later, 14-year-old Gargi got the Borivli school off to a blazing start in the chase, scoring a 22-ball 25 which included four
boundaries. St Joseph's off-spinner Jemimah Rodrigues took three wickets giving away 16 runs towards the fag end, but it was too late as the Borivli school reached the target in 16.5 overs.

Gargi was ecstatic as her school had lost to the same team in the semi-finals of the previous two editions of the tournament.
"Its great to finally get our hands on the trophy and and that too after beating a team that we lost to for two consecutive seasons. Today, I just followed my coach's (Sonali Ved) advice to stay calm and play my natural game. It was a low target but sometimes these low targets can be tricky," said Gargi, a Class IX student.

Unfortunately, this edition of the tournament saw just four schools participating - St Columbia High School, Shardashram Vidyamandir English (Dadar), Swami Vivekanand International (Borivli) and St Joseph's Convent (Bandra). The last edition had 12 teams.