Sidak stands tall for Springfield

MUMBAI: For Sidak Singh, playing the protagonist's role for Rizvi Springfield is something of a norm. On Wednesday, the Rizvi skipper found himself in the thick of action again as he single-handedly took the team to the Giles Shield final, with his all-round performance.
Building on their overnight score of 374, Sidak along with Prakhar Gupta stitched together a 160-run partnership for the seventh wicket to take the team total to 553 for 7.Thereafter, he ripped through Don Bosco, Matunga, scalping 7 wickets to bundle them out for a paltry 150. Don Bosco chose to concede the match which enabled Rizvi to go through on the first innings lead.
Sidak scored an unbeaten 216 (30x4s), his personal best in the Giles Shield so far. The 13-year-old gives due credit to his team, especially Abrail Jilani.
"We had lost four quick wickets but Abrail was playing consistently and it allowed me to get in the groove," Sidak said.
Meanwhile, in the other semifinal, VN Sule ended the day's play with a crucial one-run lead at 195 for seven. Vaishnav Narvekar remained unbeaten at 86. Sidak, who anticipates the summit clash to be against Sule is confident of putting things across them in the final too. "We beat them in Harris Shield and we are confident of doing the same in Giles Shield too."
Brief Scores:
Rizvi Springfield 553/7 decl (Arbail Sayyed 159, Sidak Singh 216 n.o., Parkhar Gupta 61; Niraj Kawle 3-162) bt Don Bosco (Matunga) 150 (Bhupen Lalwani 78; Sidak Singh 7-43) on 1st innings lead;
Hansraj Morarji 194 (Sammit Pawar 63; Vedak Dhruva 6-47) vs IES VN Sule Guruji Eng (Dadar) 195/7 (Vaishnav Narvekar 86, Om Jadhav 54; Barmare Zaid 3-48).