Rizvi Springfield (Bandra) are all set to defend their inter-school cricket title and make it five in a row, as a new season of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA) - Mumbai Indians Harris Shield Elite Division kicks off today
Last season, Rizvi became the first team in the 115-year history of the tournament to be declared winners by the virtue of better quotient (79.55). The quotient rule was applied since VN Sule Guruji, in reply to Rizvi’s 716 for nine, scored 406 for seven without completing their first innings.
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Rizvi Springfield play their opening match against Swami Vivekanand (Borivali) at Cross Maidan today. “We have had a good start to this season having won the U-16 inter-school Vinoo Mankad Trophy recently. We hope that we keep the winning momentum going and make it five MSSA titles in a row,” said Rizvi coach Raju Pathak.
This year, 144 school teams will take part in the tournament that is divided into Elite and Plate groups. The Elite group comprises 16, teams while the Plate category has a total of 128 entries (an increase of 13 teams as compared to last year).
“There will be 13 new teams participating in the Plate group this year. Last year there were 115 teams in that category,” informed MSSA cricket secretary HS Bhor.