Lucknow, January 27: The six-day International School Cricket League (ISCL 2023) being organised by City Montessori School, Kanpur Road Campus will be formally inaugurated on Saturday, 28th January at 2 pm at the cricket ground of CMS Kanpur Road. Vice President of Board of Cricket Control of India, Mr Rajiv Shukla will be the Chief Guest while famous personalities of the cricketing world will also be present on the occasion. This information was given by Chief Public Relations Officer of CMS, Shri Hari Om Sharma. Shri Sharma informed that post inauguration, the match will be played between the team of City Montessori School and TISSL International, Sri Lanka. This match will be played from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm on the CMS Kanpur Road cricket ground.

          Shri Sharma further informed that the cricket matches under ISCL 2023 have commenced from today. In the first match played at the CMS Kanpur Road cricket ground, a stiff contest was seen between the teams of Aster Public School, Greater Noida and Gyan Ganga Public School, Patna. APS, Noida elected to bowl first after winning the toss. Batting first, GGPS, Patna posted a target of 138 runs in the stipulated 20 overs which APS, Noida overcame by scoring 144 runs for 7 wickets and posted their first victory. Virat Chauhan of APS Noida was declared the player of the match.

          In another match of the day, played between DAV Senior Secondary School, Punjab and DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwabharti Higher Secondary School, Nepal, at the multi-activity centre, the Punjab team posted a big total of 229 runs, losing 8 wickets in 20 overs, helped by Saksham’s score of 68 runs in 43 balls and Paras Vinayak’s 66 runs in 37 balls. Their opening partnership helped Punjab reach 156 runs in 80 balls. Chasing the tough target, Nepal batters played blistering knocks and scored a win for their team, scoring 231 runs in 19.3 overs. The opening pair of Ravi Kumar Shah and Adarsh Agarwal struck 91 runs in the first 9 overs. Scoring at a strike rate of over 173, Ravi Kumar Shah struck 71 runs in 41 balls including 6 sixes and 6 fours. Later Sameer Akhtar, who came at number 3, bashed the ball all over the ground and scored 125 runs in just 43 balls, hitting 9 fours and 13 towering sixes, scoring the win for his team. Sameer was declared the player of the match.