Saurav Nautiyal shows his batting prowess with an attacking 107* in a Private U19 championship

17 year old Saurav Nautiyal displayed his fine talent with the bat as well as with the ball against Hyderabad in Nagpur. His coach, Sultan, had advised him to just stick to the crease & not to be worried if the wickets tumble from the other side. Saurav followed his coach’s advice to perfection as he remained unbeaten on 107* till the end of the innings. His knock was a perfect mixture of controlled aggression and practical approach towards batting.

Though he brought up his century in just 82 balls & was unbeaten on 107*(85 balls) never once did he appeared to struggle against any bowlers. Saurav smashed 5 brilliant sixes in his knock of 107 out of which 4 sixes were towards the mid on & mid off & all his boundaries came towards the cover region. It was also exciting to see the battle between the opposition bowler  Afridi & Saurav. Afridi had taken a wicket & also bowled a maiden over, he was trying to test Saurav to the hilt. Saurav who is not the one to bog down came with an aggressive reply in his next over where he smashed afridi for 4 consecutive boundaries. The left handed Saurav scored more than 60% of his team’s total of 175 in 30 overs.

It was a great day for Saurav as he also bowled really well. Saurav took 2 wickets for just 25 runs. He was not only economical but also troubled the batsman with his line & length. Saurav also dismissed the opposition captain which was a big wicket. At the age of 17, Saurav is already touching 130 kmph with the ball & it appears to be quite promising. If he manages to keep his fitness levels & form steady on a consistent basis, Saurav can become a genuine fast bowler too apart from being a great batsman in the coming days.

Though his team lost a close match against Hyderabad, but the heroics of this boy caught everyone’s attention.