Budding Cricketers

The Men in Blue – Indian Cricket team is on the path of breaking cricket records and creating their dominance in the world of cricket. Each player of the Indian Cricket team inspires the budding cricketers across the cities and villages of India. These budding cricketers start their cricket journey from gully/street cricket and land up at local cricket academies to learn the basic and advanced skills of the game.

The Union Cricket Academy of Kalyan (UCA) is one such academy that trains school and college students who are passionate about cricket and wants to make a career in this game. Apart from cricket coaching, the academy conducts cricket tournaments in association with various partners for young players to showcase their readiness for the next level of the game.

Yesterday, I got an opportunity to watch one such match of U12 Salgaonkar League Tournament 2020 played between UCA U12 Team B and Thane Police School & Club (TPS) as my son, Bhargav is part of UCA U12 Team B. It was their first match after undergone training for 5-6 months from coach Akshay Pashte. There were three girls who were also part of Team B. I could see a lot of excitement, some fear and mental pressure in each player.

It was a 20 overs match. UCA U12 Team B won the toss and decide to bat first. The team had to struggle as they had lost the first two wickets in the first over. However, they managed to score 94 runs with 8 wickets down at end of the 19th over. One over was reduced due to some penalty. The Thane Police School & Club team was a well-prepared team. They started the innings with hitting 6 & 4s. TPS had a good batting line-up. They easily won the match in 11 overs.

I would like to summarise in a typical captain’s positive words, “The boys played well. In fact, the girls too played well. We lost the initial wickets which cost us heavily. In the end, the runs by Advait Thakare (15 runs) and Dhruvi Patel (14 runs) added 29 runs that helped the team to reach 94 runs. The bowling department was trying hard to take wickets but couldn’t deliver as per the expectations. But I’m sure that the learnings from this match will help the team bounce back in the upcoming matches .” 🙂

More than the match, I was happy to see the passion for cricket in these young players from the 8 to 12 age group. Each player from both teams was putting the best efforts. Their determination to compete and team effort was clearly visible throughout the match. For all Budding Cricketers, the journey is a long and competitive one but enjoyable. I hope each of them practices well and goes to the next level.

I tried to capture some best shots during the match. I hope you all like it.

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