DPS Falcons’ Under-13s soared to an easy victory over a depleted Repton Royals at 7he Sevens cricket ground yesterday.

An already difficult task for Royals against a DPS side tipped to go far in the Sport360° National School League was made even harder when they showed up with only nine players. 

And the task quickly became insurmountable when batting, Kit Holland top scoring with just five.

Repton were slow between the wickets too, not helping their cause with three run outs.

For Falcons, it was a team bowling performance, with one standout showing from man-of-the-match Harishankar Radhakrishnan, who took two wickets for as many runs.

Mohit Gupta and Harsh Bobade took a wicket apiece, conceding just two and three runs, respectively.

Repton were all out in 13 overs, but they were put out of their misery just three overs into the reply, as DPS openers Aryan Lakra and Vivek Aditya got the job done.

Repton coach Yassar Ali said: “It was difficult before we even started and the boys tried not to let that get them down, but the biggest problem was the lads [three absentees] who let us down.”

Falcons coach Prosanta Chanda said he didn’t feel like the win was hollow: “It was a good job. The boys are practising hard and working hard. No matter the difficulties of the other side we just had to come here and do a professional job.”

Man of the match Harishankar said: “It feels awesome to be man-of-the-match, I rarely get it. 

“It was actually a bit too easy (the win), we were expecting a tough competition.”