Giles Shield final: Anjuman Islam determined to beat Rizvi

As the final of the inter-school Giles shield begins today, underdogs Anjuman-I-Islam believe they have worked out a way to stop Rizvi Springfeld from claiming a hat-trick of titles

Giles Shield final: Anjuman Islam determined to beat Rizvi

As the final of the inter-school Giles shield begins today, underdogs Anjuman-I-Islam believe they have worked out a way to stop Rizvi Springfeld from claiming a hat-trick of titles

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Anjuman-I-Islam English believe they can stopu00a0 defending champions Rizvi Springfield from winning a hat-trick of Giles Shield titles as the final gets underway today at the Vengsarkar Academy, Oval Maidan.

Rizvi's batsmen have been brilliant this season. Be it the recently concluded Harris Shield or the ongoing Giles Shield, their batsmen have done well posting huge totals every time they have gone out to bat. Armaan Jaffer alone amassed 498 runs in an innings while Prithvi Shaw, Usama Parkar and Azim Shaikh all have double centuries under their belt.

Rizvi coach Raju Pathak backed his batsmen to perform once again to make things easier for the bowlers.

Anjuman's assistant coach Syed Alamdar however claimed that it is Rizvi's over-dependence on their batting that can cost them the title, and added that the only bowler worth mentioning in their line-up is Sidak Singh.

"With Prithvi not in form, I think they (Rizvi) are too reliant on Armaan to score big. Our main challenge will be to get rid of him as early as possible and if we do that, we will be able to pack them up," Alamdar said.

Pathak meanwhile said that his bowlers were happy to remain behind the scenes giving the example of his left-arm spinner Sidak, who has gone unnoticed despite taking 26 wickets in four games.

"Our bowling has been very decent this season. The reason why they haven't got praised in the same vein as our batsmen is because the latter have scored so heavily that the focus is always on them. Bowlers get appreciated when they do well in low-scoring games but our batsmen haven't given them that chance and have always given them plenty of runs to play with," Pathak said.

Like Rizvi, Anjuman-I-Islam too have been equally ruthless in the competition and enter the finale on the back of a huge win against Don Bosco in the semi-finals. Skipper Khizar Dafedar and his younger brother Hashir have been the mainstay of the team. Apart from scoring big, the duo have also collected 49 wickets among themselves in the tournament.

Khizar said his side has what it takes to stop Rizvi from winning the trophy for the third time in a row and claimed his teammates are desperate to break their own title drought.

"All the boys in the team are very motivated. They know this is the last game of the tournament and I'm confident that they will give it their best shot and help Anjuman win the title that we haven't won in a long time," Khizar said.

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