VN Sule Guruji claims Giles Shield beating Rizvi Springfield

IES VN Sule Guruji (Dadar) took u00a0revenge of their Harris Shield defeat to arch-rivals Rizvi Springfield a fortnight ago by winning the Giles Shield title by virtue of a first-inning lead at the Cricket Club of India yesterday.u00a0Rizvi declared their innings at the overnight score of 229-9 giving their bowlers an opportunity to bowl out the rivals and go for an outright win. But the batting side held fort as skipper Yash Bhojne scored a brilliant half-century (78) to take Guruji to 190-6 at the end of the day.

The defeat dashed the Bandra side's hopes of winning the title for the fourth consecutive season. For the Dadar side, it was celebration time. Spinner Dhruva Vedak u00a0 emerged the highest wicket-taker this season with 48 scalps, while teammate Vaishnav Narvekar (484 runs) was the most consistent batsman for the winners.u00a0"Today is a special day. I am not only the winning captain, but we defeated Rizvi in the final. What's more special is that I could score some runs. Every member of the team contributed to the win, especially Dhruva and Vaishnav," Sule Guruji skipper Yash Bhojne said.

"The kids are ecstatic after winning the title. I had told them to play the way they played on Day One and they stuck to the plan. Vaishnav and Dhruva were the best players in bowling and batting departments respectively. Rizvi skipper Sidak Singh is really a good player and his run out dismissal was the turning point," Sule Guruji coach Gopal Koli said.

Meanwhile, Rizvi coach Raju Pathak praised his team for their efforts. "I am very satisfied with team's performance. We had planned to restrict them to around 250, but we gave away too many runs. Later the two run-outs changed the complexion of the game and that is where we lost out," Pathak told MiD DAY.u00a0

BRIEF SCORES: IES VN Sule Guruji 298 (Vaishnav Narvekar 58 n o, Tanush Kotian 70, Sidak Singh 4-59, Piyush Dinanath 2-76) & 190-6 (Yash Bhojne 78, Om Jadhav 24, Sairaj Shetty 3-31) bt Rizvi Springfield 229-9 (Sidak Singh 58, Satyalaksh Jain 54, Dhruva Vedak 4-82) by virtue of first innings lead of 64.