Waleed Gohar’s man-of-the-match performance helped Wesgreen Wolverines under-13s register their first win in the Sport360 National School League, a seven-wicket win over NIMS Rising Stars on Saturday.

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Gohar took three wickets in his three overs conceding just 13 runs in Rising Stars 68 for five in 15 overs.

In reply, Hani Mohammad top-scored for Wesgreen (23 off 24) and Abdullah Khan made five off 10 balls as Wesgreen posted 69-7 from their 15 overs, thanks largely to 31 extras.

The game came right down to the wire with Mohammad closing the game out with a quick single with three balls to spare.

Niven Balraj, coach of Wesgreen, felt the 13th over proved vital.

“Overall, it was a great team per­formance but Hani and Waleed managed to get us over the line,” he said. “We made tough work of it, but battled hard in the second innings and we got there in the end.”

Man of the match Waleed was delighted with the win. “Our performance was great. I really enjoyed the batting and to have such great support helps,” he said.

In Saturday’s other game, Ani­rudh J. was the star of the show as Our Own Zenith beat Ryanites by six wickets.

Anirudh, in at No 2, scored 8 runs off 14 balls and also took two wickets.

Zenith fielded first and after a slow start, Arnay Kamli and Yash Jadav stepped up the scoring rate for Ryanites. In particular, Jadav stood out, remaining unbeaten on 22 off 15 balls, including three boundaries.

But the target 76 for 7 was well matched by Zenith.

After the game, man of the match Anirudh said hard work was central to the win.

“We bowled really well. We worked hard but our fielding could improve, [that’s] something we will go back and work on over the next few weeks,” he said.

Zenith coach Fostus Xavier felt the team needs to play with more confidence.

“This [confidence] is something we lack and we need to build on over the next few weeks. We always bowl well but there’s parts of our game, like our fielding, that we need to build on,” he said.

“When Anirudh came in at No2, it was the right time to strike and that set the bar of expectation for us.”

Ryanites can walk away feeling satisfied from their performance despite the loss. Their field posi­tioning was good and they battled well. The missing factor was believ­ing they could win the contest.