DY Patil group eyeing maiden Times Shield title

MUMBAI: The A Division Times Cricket Shield final at the MIG ground from Monday will be a battle between two young sides, Air India and DY Patil Group.
The MIG pitch usually turns it back on bowlers but so does the one at MCA's Bandra Kurla ground. But on that same pitch DY Patil's Prashant Bhoir gave an exemplary display of swing bowling to reduce BPCL, a side of first-class players from different states, to a mere 224.
DY Patil will hope for a head start of the type Bhoir gave them against a strong line-up whose main run getters have been Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Rohan Kerkar, Prashant Naik and Ankit Chavan.Air India will hope their spearhead, Umesh 'Babloo' Yadav, will produce the first spell that he did for Central Zone against South in the Duleep trophy to rattle the young side.
Vijay Patil, president DY Patil sports academy said, "We are proud that the average of the side is 23. They have gelled well. The A Division title is the one we covet. We don't go much by our achievements in the shorter game." DY Patil are staging the T20 Cup at the moment which will reach the finale around the same time of the Times final on February 12.
DY Patil are in the senior division only for the last three years. So it is natural for them to covet the elusive title.
For Air India, it is deja vue for they won in 1995 and 2004. The 1995 title had a hollow ring for they provoked a boycott of the event but let the other teams down by playing later when the field was depleted. The 2004 triumph came at the expense of BPCL.
Air India are lucky Hrishikesh Kanitkar who led them in the semis, was part of that winning side.
"I did have a role in that final with a good knock. The Times Shield has been a big big part of my learning curve. I began at RCF watched the India and Mumbai stars from close range and benefited from that. The exposure we got in the media helped our careers immensely. Today's youngsters don't value it so much but we cherished it. We have a young side and plan to regain the shield."
On paper Air India have stars like Dhoni, Yuvraj, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Mohamed Kaif, RP Singh,Robin Uthappa. But they are not available for various reasons. Kaif led in the first league game got a hundred but his side trailed BPCL.
Air India's player of the year has been Ankit Chavan whose bowling improved after Narendra Hirwani worked on him. His pitching has improved and he gets bite. And with the bat he has been good enough to get a hundred. Mumbai have a genuine all-rounder at long last. Rohan Kerkar, only 18, excelled in the last game with his crispy strokes.
If others like Paul Valthaty and Sushant Marathe get their act together, Air India could withstand the challenge of DY Patil who have eight IPL players. Among them Shoeb Shaikh and Iqbal Abdulla,Saurabh Bandekar, Ishwar Choudhury (all KKR), Swpnil Asnodkar and Siddharth Chitnis (Jaipur), Ankit Chavan (MI), Ryan Ninan (Kings). Ryan is injured while Bandekar and Choudhury are not playing.