Easy wins for DIA and Elite in CSS Homeward Bound tournament

Dubai International Academy (DIA) Wolves and The Elite English School won their inaugural matches of the CSS Homeward Bound Inter-School Cricket Championship which is being organised by Dubai Cricket Council (DCC) and played at the Fair Grounds of the Dubai Men’s College.

The tournament is also supported by Smart Bag, Petrotech, MyCricket.ae and AreaSqft.com among others.

Hrithik Bhatia was the star performer in DIA’s 59-run win over The English Language School in Group A.

Coming in to bat with his school struggling on 54 for 6, Hrithik played a sensible, yet attacking knock to steer DIA to a defendable total of 146 which at one stage looked beyond their reach.

He later came back to strike two crucial blows as English Language faltered in their run chase despite a superb start from opener Ammar Bajwa (30).

In a Group B match, Elite English’s bowlers did well to bowl out The Winchester School for 113.

Man of the match Naveen Shivnani (3-22), Karan Menon (2-38) and Harsith Kumar (2-11) maintained a tight leash on Winchester with only Marlon Malcolm able to break the shackles with a stubborn 22.

But that was not good enough as the rest of the batsmen collapsed like a pack of cards. It was only the 41 extras conceded by Elite which helped propel Winchester’s total.

Even that could not save them as a 56-run opening stand between Jaydeep Jain (36) and Athiq Syed (28) made it look like smooth sailing for Elite.

They should have been cruising to victory but all of a sudden they found themselves staring down the barrel when seven wickets fell in a heap.

Fortunately for them the target they were chasing was not too stiff and they managed to sneak home in 20.2 overs.

Brief scores:

Dubai International Academy (DIA) Wolves beat English Language School by 59 runs: DIA Wolves 146 all out in 23.1 overs (Hrithik Bhatia 42, Abdullah Murad 22; Mosab Ali 2-21, Suleiman Muhammad 2-6) English Language (87 all out in 17.5 overs (Ammar Bajwa 30, Shahzab Naeem 17; Saud Barkur 2-11, Hrithik Bhatia 2-10). Man of the match: Hrithik Bhatia of DIA Wolves.

The Elite English School beat The Winchester School by 3 wickets: Winchester 113 all out in 19.5 overs (Marlon Malcolm 22; Naveen Shivnani 3-22, Karan Menon 2-38, Harsith Kumar 2-11) Elite 114 for 7 in 20.2 overs (Jaydeep Jain 36, Athiq Syed 28; Dhyan Shah 3-19, Abhishek Ranjeet 2-23). Man of the match: Naveen Shivnani of Elite.

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