Mumbai: Sports College, Lucknow defeated Al Barkat Malik M. I. English School, Mumbai by 24 runs in the final match and become champion of the 3rd edition of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup under-16 school tournament, played at HPCL Ground in 
Mumbai on Sunday.
Sports College won the toss and opted to bat first. However, Al Barkat Malik School bowlers Jahangir Ansari and Shubham Singh’s three-wicket hauls rattled top order batsmen and clinched four wickets in initial overs. It was the middle-order batsmen Vijay Yadav and Nitin Singh, who stabilized the situation and scored runs patiently. Their 50-run partnership in 70 balls for fifth wicket took their team’s score to respectable 188 runs.
In reply, Al Barkat Malik failed to keep their winning spree and was bowled-out at 164 runs. All credit goes to Sports College’s acute fielding as they managed to run-out Rayhan Khan (duck) and Pushkar Sharma (1). Bowlers Shahid (3/22) and Ankit (2/21) did rest of the job and helped their team to bundle-out the opponents in 42.2 overs.
Captain Shoeb Khan held one end with his inspiring knock of 61 runs. He received commendable support from Jahangir Ansari (25) but rest of the batsmen failed to build stable partnerships.
Shoeb, skipper of the losing team, was adjudged Man-of-the-Match for his all-round performance (61 runs & 2 wkts).
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Sumanta Datta, CBO-Company Bottling Operations, INSWABU said: “Congratulations to Sports College, Lucknow,UP for a superlative performance. The Coca-Cola Cup has brought some really talented youth to the forefront. We are happy that The Coca-Cola Cup has reached over 12000 youngsters and apart from playing competitively, they got an opportunity engage in active healthy lifestyle. I would like to wish players from both the teams the very best.”
The Coca-Cola Cricket Cup is an initiative undertaken by Coca-Cola India as part of its commitment to promote a sporting culture and healthy active living in the country and is being promoted by Procam International, India’s largest sports and leisure management company.
Intensive Seven-day Coaching Clinic: Twenty six of the best players from the Inter-State Leg of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup have been picked for a seven-day coaching clinic to be conducted from April 21 to 27 at the Air India Ground. The clinic will be conducted by veteran Cricket India Academy coaches like Anthony Adams.
26 players – (Shoeb Khan- Mumbai, Jahangir Ansari- Mumbai, Shubham Singh- Mumbai, Rajesh Tangri- Delhi, Muklit Bhatt – Delhi, Prashanth Vashishta- Delhi, Rishab Drall- Delhi, Bharat Shankar- Delhi, Atul Kushwa – MP, Neeraj Gaur- MP, Nikhik Sikawar – MP, Mohit Pal – UP, Vijay Yadav – UP, Vivek anand – UP, Mohsin Ali – UP, Ankur Balyan - UP, Yoksharath Sreekanth – Tamil Nadu, Deryl Ferrario – Tamil Nadu, Karthik Shanmugam.- Tamil Nadu, Joy Kenny – Tamil Nadu, Karan Pawar- Baroda, Saurin Thakar- Baroda, Tanmoy Aditya – West Bengal, Amrit Lubana – Punjab, Praneet Raj- Hyderabad, M.Rafi – AP)
Following the week-long clinic, the Coca-Cola XI will be selected to play a three-match series against an international under16 team in the month of June.
Brief Score
Sports College, Lucknow,UP, 188 all out in 43.5overs..Vijay Yadav 38 runs (41b 3X4), Nitin Singh 29 runs (46b 4X4), AshutoshMaurya 23 runs (35b 3X4), Govind Yadav 22runs (26b 1X6, 3X4), Mohsin Ali 21 runs (31b 4X4); Jahangir Ansari 3 for 46 in 7.5overs, Shubham Singh 3 for 25 in 8 overs, Shoeb Khan 2 for 45 in 9overs, Arslan Khan 2 for 35 in 9 overs defeated Al. Barkat Malik M. I. English School, Mumbai 164 All out in 42.2 overs Shoeb Khan (C)61runs (103b 2X4), Mohd Aman 23 run (32b 4X4), Pratik Mhatre 24 runs (32b 4X4), Jahangir Ansari 25 runs, (30b 1X6, 3X4); Mohd Shahid 3 for 22 in 5.2 overs, Ankit Singh 2 for 21 in 9 overs, Ankur Baliyan 1 for 30 in 5 overs, Vijay Yadav 1 for 25 in 7 overs.