MI Junior Season 6 Champions Crowned as Jayawardene Inspires Youth

Mumbai Indians Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene praised the sixth edition of MI Junior, highlighting the importance of enjoying competition at a young age. Speaking at the closing ceremony in Bandra, he encouraged participants to use the iconic venue as inspiration to develop their skills and aspire to one day play for Mumbai Indians.

"This is our sixth year of organising MI Junior and it's getting more exciting every year. Sports is about participating and at this age, it is about enjoying the competition more than anything. We are at an iconic venue today, from where a lot of Indian cricketers started their journey. I saw some iconic pictures in the dressing rooms and I know that Hardik (Pandya) has also practised here in his early days. This is a great starting point for you to push yourselves and one day, hopefully, don the colours of Mumbai," he said.

After being put into bat, Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English School displayed the strength and depth of their batting order as the majority of their batters crossed the 20-run mark. However, none of the batters were able to capitalise on their starts, with Kabir Jagtap (41), Laxmanprasad Vishwakarma (39) and Ramprasad Vishwakarma (38) being the prime examples.

Eventually, it was skipper Yuvan Sharma's fiery knock of 52 runs off just 20 balls at the business end that powered Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English School to a towering total of 253 runs in their stipulated 30 overs.

Sitaram Prakash High School's chase for the championship revolved heavily around a lone-warrior effort of opener Aayush Shete, who went on to score a valiant century.

While wickets tumbled at one end, Aayush Shete single-handedly kept his side in the game as he showcased utmost class and poise under tremendous pressure and went on to amass a staggering 155 runs. Alas, it was not to be for Aayush Shete and Sitaram Prakash High School as they came agonisingly close, only to lose out by just 3 runs, handing Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English School - the runners-ups in the previous edition - their second U-16 title.

Brief Scores:

Boys U-14:

V.K Krishna Menon Academy all out 225 in 39 overs (Christiano Buthello 59, Hridhaan Mistry 49, Ridit Poojary 41; Aryan Chauhan 4/46, Lovish 2/8) bt Dnyandeep Seva Mandal High School 204/9 in 40 overs (Lavish Singh 101, Atharv Kalel 39, Lovish 27; Soham Mokari 4/20, Parth Nalawade 3/39).

Boys U-16:

Anjuman-I-Islam Allana English School 253/6 in 30 overs (Yuvan Sharma 52, Kabir Jagtap 41, Laxmanprasad Vishwakarma 39, Ramprasad Vishwakarma 38, Yuvraj Bhingare 25 n.o, Umar Khute 24; Sudhan Chelvi 3/50) bt Sitaram Prakash High School 250/6 in 30 overs (Aayush Shete 155, Shourya Oswal 21, Pugazh Sundarraj 20; Mohd Salman Khan 2/41, Yuvan Sharma 2/43).

Girls U-15:

Modern English School 135/6 in 17.2 overs (Ruth Saluja 40, Tanvi Rane 31 n.o; Advaita Toraskar 3/25) bt Parag English School 132/8 in 20 overs (Vedika Nikam 51, Swaasti Shinde 23; Rianna Nikhil 3/23, Nysa Bhalerao 2/11).

- ANI