Star Field elite under-15 cricket team fell to counterparts Swamibapa by 6 wickets in a friendly contest played at Jamhuri High School on Saturday.

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The hosts won the toss and sent Star Field in to bat and controlled a majority of the opening half with some disciplined bowling upfront to restrict the flow of runs to a minimum.

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Star Field had only realized 31 runs for the loss of the three wickets by the completion of the 12th over. The first three batsmen failed to register double figure totals against their names in an otherwise disappointing start.

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It took the middle order of Stian Smith 12 off 17 and captain Aarnav Patel 15 off 20 to give the innings some impetus. Stian holed out to Dhananjay Hirani off the bowling of Milan Varsani (1/10) at a time when he seemed to have a decent 25-run partnership with his skipper.

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Both Jiyan Patel and Kian Patel departed shortly after Smith’s exploits without adding meaningfully to the total, leaving Aarnav frustrated at the opposite end.

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The Star Field captain was left with a huge task of finding plenty of runs with the tail and he also perished six runs later than Smith with only 62 showing on the board at the end of 19 overs off man of the match Ved Patel who claimed 3 for 11 accounting for the dismissals of both Kian and Jiyan in the space of two overs.

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The innings ended seven runs later and Swamibapa had the simple task of accumulating runs at asking rate of only 3.5 runs in the second half the match to overhaul Star Field’s total which they managed with 2.3 overs to spare.

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Neel Doshi was the pick of the Star Field bowlers with 2 for 12 off two overs while Dylan Shah chipped in with 1 for 15 off his four allotted overs – the other wicket being a run out credited to Garv Galaiya of the four wickets to fall in the innings.

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“Look, we’d set ourselves achievable targets, but the execution on the day lacked a bit. The wicket was a up and down on occasions, so timing our shorts became a little difficult. But credit must also go to Swamibapa who bowled in good areas throughout the innings and we needed to adjust quickly to the surface, something we can work on our next assignment”, batsman Smith alluded.