Baroda boys win U-16 tourney, felicitated

VADODARA: The Under-16 boys of Baroda, who brought much-needed cheer to the city's junior cricket camp after it won an invitational tournament finals in Maharashtra recently, were felicited for their feat on Sunday.
Baroda boys, some of who played blazing knocks, beat three teams that were named after India's best former cricketers to win U-16 Ultra Tech Cement Tournament.The team beat Dilip Vengsarkar XI, Ravi Shastri XI and Sunil Gawaskar XI on the basis of first innings lead in the two-day matches.
This win has come as a consolation to U-16 boys who couldn't qualify for the national U-16 tournament this season. The Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) on Sunday felicitated the boys for their victory. The felicitation function became all the more special for the boys as former India batsman and current National Cricket Academy (NCA) coach Sandip Patil came down to meet the team.
"The boys batted and bowled well to win the tournament that had quality opponents. We have been working hard on improving junior cricket and results will start showing in coming months," said Nayan Mongia, in-charge of junior cricket development, BCA.
Patil even appreciated the boys' efforts saying that it wasn't easy to beat a Mumbai team in Mumbai. "It's a dream of every team and you all have done it. It's a good beginning and you must continue with the hard work," Patil said.
Manvendra Kaushik scored 245 runs from three matches, Mahipal Jadeja scored 185 from three matches and Mohammed Jilani scored 181 runs. Kartik Kakade was highest wicket-taker with 19 wickets from three matches at an economy rate of 2.25.
Patil later asked the boys to learn from batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar's hunger for runs and keep questioning to learn more about the game. "It's also important to study well as good education never goes waste," Patil added.