I.E.S VN Sule crowned winners of Pro Star League Season 1

I.E.S VN Sule Guruji English Medium School clinched the inaugural Pro Star League title at the DY Patil University Grounds last night. The grand finale of Pro Star League saw nail-biting performances as Mumbai’s I.E.S VN Sule defeated Sanskar School from Jaipur by 47 runs. The former, trained by Zaheer Khan, outwitted their opponents with some clever bowling and steady batting throughout the course of the match.

The ‘Player of the Match’ and ‘Man of the Series’ was awarded to Shubham Girkar from VN Sule who came out to bat in top gear and led the team to victory, adding 40 runs to the team’s total. He played 3 matches and scored 100 runs.

Aayush Zimare from VN Sule also showcased a standout performance where he bowled three maidens and only conceded two runs, while taking three wickets. The left arm spinner led the team to victory by picking wickets, nearly wiping out the tail at a crucial phase of the match.

IES VN Sule player in action during the finals of the Pro Star League

Sanskar School did come back into the attack at certain intervals but the lack of consistency cost them the match. VN Sule rode on Shubham Girkar’s 40 and supplemented it with good bowling from Atharva Bhosale and Aditya Pawar, who picked three, two and two wickets, respectively.

Player of Sanskar School, Jaipur celebrates after the fall of a wicket

I.E.S VN Sule defeated Don Bosco in the semi-finals by 9 wickets before proceeding to the finals. The teams which qualified for the post-mentorship phase were – DAV School Chandigarh, Sanskar School Jaipur, St. Marks Boys Town School and Shreenidhi International from Hyderabad, I.E.S VN Sule and Don Bosco from Mumbai and National Gems School and LMET International from Kolkata.

Pro Star League is an U-16 grassroots revolution that was simultaneously contested in 10 cities (Mumbai, Jaipur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru) where over 900 schools battled for a chance to be mentored by legends of the sport.

Teams that make it to the mentorship phase were given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be mentored by Sourav Ganguly (east zone), Yuvraj Singh (north zone), Zaheer Khan (west zone) and VVS Laxman (south zone). Top talent from the tournament will also be scouted for the 2018 Inter-School World Cup.

Brief Scores:

Pro Star League Finals: I.E.S VN Sule 115/9 in 20 overs

(Shubham Girkar 40; Aayush Zimare 3/ 2)

Sanskar School 68/9 in 20 overs

(Kapis Chaudhary 2/18, Prince Singh Rathore 2/12)