Guruji in spot of bother

MUMBAI: Cricket, they say, is played in the space between the ears. Clichéd as it may sound; it's still worth reminding the young talented players of VN Sule Guruji who have all but kissed their chances of winning the Harris Shield goodbye. It was their game for the taking. With Rizvi Springfield starting Day Three at 140 for 5, nobody could argue with that possibility. But a champion side that they are, Rizvi's lower order showed their mental fortitude to take their team's score to 310. In response, Sule Guruji were left reeling at 91 for 5 at close on the penultimate day of the four-day game. Rizvi owe a big thank you to their all-rounders, Sidak Singh (56 runs and 2-29) and Shubham Verma (74). The duo bailed them out with a 106-run stand for the sixth wicket. The pair braved the testing conditions in the morning and denied Guruji bowlers a breakthrough. Ankur Singh's 66-ball 43 too came in handy. "The ball was darting around in the morning, but we had decided to cut out the loose strokes and play the ball on its merit. That approach helped us," said Sidak, who took 145 deliveries for his 56. Yash Bhojane, the star for Sule Guruji on Day Two, ended with impressive figures of 7-88. The all-rounder who is also the captain, batted stoically for his 23. But he was done in by a straighter one from his opposite number Prithvi Shaw, who picked two wickets in the second last over of the day to leave Sule Guruji struggling. All is not lost for the Gopal Koli-coached side as they still have a couple of decent batsmen left and Sidak was quick to acknowledge that. "There's some work left for us. We need to bowl as well as today before thinking of winning," said Sidak.Brief scores: Rizvi Springfield 310 all out (S Verma 74, S Singh 56, A Singh 43; Y Bhojane 7-88, A Chavan 3-52) lead VN Sule Guruji 91 for 5 (A Savala 24; P Shaw 2-2, S Singh 2-29) by 219 runs.