14yr old Jash Ganiga: Cub roars amongst the lions in the “A” Div of the Padmakar Talim Shield Tournament ‘18

Imagine a little cub who is just too raw to go out in the jungle and hunt for himself amongst the large predators and animals. That would be really tough, isn’t it? A similar sort of situation happened in the Padmakar Shield Tournament when the little wizard Jash Ganiga participated in a high profile match on the basis of his merit against players who were on an average twice his age. It also included the likes of veteran spinners Pravin Tambe, Iqbal Abudllah amongst other senior names.

Played between DY Patil and Karnatak Sporting Association at the DY Patil Ground, Karnatak SA won the toss and elected to bat first. Opening the innings with the attacking Rudra Dhanday, everyone must have assumed Jash must have felt the nervousness and he may struggle and get out eventually. But that was not the case, one of the most prolific &promising Under-14- and Under-16 batsman of Mumbai showed his class with the bat as he was the top scorer in his team’s playing XI. Right-handed Jash scored 46 off 75balls and made everyone go in awe with his batting. This must be an experience he will cherish for a long time as this was his debut match & he played against a level of players who were twice and thrice stronger in terms of fitness, age, physicality and mental conditioning. Jash also got a chance to face world class bowlers like Pravin Tambe and Iqbal Abudllah. Karnatak SA were all out for 210 runs with the rest of the batsman just managing to score 20’s and 30’s. From the bowling side, Tambe and Karsh Kothari were the leading bowlers scalping 3wkts each.

DY Patil chased down the score on the back of Iqbal Abudllah smashing a match winning 73* down the order helping his team win the match by 5wkts. Even though, Karnatak SA lost the match but they found a winner in this little lad Jash Ganiga who impressed one and all with his grit, confidence and survival instincts.

CRICKETGRAPH