Dubai: Maxtalent Cricket Academy youngsters returned from England after gaining exposure on how to play on foreign conditions.
It was the seventh tour of the academy to England and during this tour the youngsters learnt on how to stay longer at the wicket through a tournament which was designed to develop this skill.
Maxtalent also organised a tournament and named it Maxtalent-Star Cricket Academy UK Challenge Trophy Test match to give a feel of Test match atmosphere though they were two-day matches of 160 overs against Stoke D’Abernon Cricket Club Surrey county.
Maxtalents’ Under-12 and Under-16 teams won six out of the eight matches. The academy also trained at the Lord’s MCC Nursery nets under the watchful eyes of England Cricket Board’s Level 4 coach Jack Nick of MCC Nursery and Sid Lahiri of Star Cricket Academy.
England reputed first class player cum coach Keith Medlycott of Surrey trained the players on improving temperament and also taught them mental and physical strengthening drills to handle. He also taught them how to play swing and reverse swing at the Reeds School Indoor Cricket cricket facility.
Speaking to Gulf News, Sudhakar Shetty, head coach of the Maxtalent Academy, said: “We played competitive game and all matches were not shorter version but at least over 30 overs The Under-13 boys played five matches, won three and lost two, while the Under-16 boys, prior to competing in the Test match tournament, played three games, losing one and winning two.”
Maxtalent pacers Pranav Nair, S, Sreekar, Shyaan Javed and Aryan Mohammad produced deadly spells.
In the match against Stoke D’Abernon, Krish Bandivedkar produced a fine spell of five for 18 runs to bowl them out for 202 in 56 overs.
Maxtalent slipped to 103 for five but Siddharth Sivakumar (45) lifted the team before being all out for 163 in 41 overs. In the second innings, Stokes were all out for 135. Maxtalent chased and won the match by four wickets with nine overs to spare and lift the trophy. Bandivedkar won the Player of the Match award with seven wickets and for scoring 60 runs.
The award winners for the top performance in under-16 category were: best batsman: Amrit Pal Singh, best bowler: Krish Bandivedkar, best all-rounder: Sreekar Gudipati. Under-13 category winners were: best batsman: Rayan Javed, best bowler: Jarel Fernandes, and best all-rounder: Shahyan Reddy.
