Maharashtra escape defeat against Mumbai

Maharashtra held Mumbai to a draw in the Under-14 West Zone league match played at the Pune Club in Pune on Saturday. The hosts took three points while the visiting Mumbai lads went home with five points owing to their first innings lead.

After Maharashtra skipper Akshay Oak won the toss and invited the visitors to bat, Mumbai declared their innings at 434/8 off 105.4 overs on the second day of the match. The highlight was a mammoth 209 run partnership for the fifth wicket between Shoeb Shaikh and Prashant Naik. Shoeb scored 100 off 127 balls with 14 boundaries while Naik piled up 148 off 221 balls with 20 hits to the fence.

Maharashtra were skittled out for 260 in 92.5 overs. Opener Nikhil Munde scored 60 off 121 balls with nine hits to the fence. Chetan Kasbekar was unbeaten on 53 off 92 balls. Pratik Kar bagged four for 44.

Conceding a 174 run lead, Maharashtra followed on. Their second essay was similar to the first one as they were bundled out for 203 in 84.5 overs. Nikhil Paradkar scored 55 off 134 balls with nine hits to the fence. Rohit Kakde topscored with 60 off 65 with a dozen hits to the fence. Sanket Chavan picked up three for 34.

Mumbai were set a target of 30 runs in three overs to win the match outright. They managed to score 22 off the three overs for the loss of one wicket.