Pondicherry boy hits 302 in Vijay Merchant game

CHENNAI: Pondicherry's Neyan Kangayan scored an unbeaten 302 (32x4, 2x6) in their U-16 Vijay Merchant clash against Goa on Monday. The 15-year-old right-hander, who features in the side as one of three outstation players, started the third and final day from his overnight score of 106 and looked at ease right through the course of his 490-ball essay. Neyan's innings helped his side end on 479-6 in reply to Goa's first innings score of 274."It was an important knock for me and batting for such a long period of time gave me a lot of confidence," Neyan told TOI.
Neyan hails from a family that has a close connect with the game. His father Shyam is the CEO of Ruby Trichy Warriors, a franchise in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. Interestingly, Neyan was in South Africa for about two years as his mother - who is an IT employee - was there on an assignment. It was during his stay there that he got a chance to interact with former India coach Gary Kirsten. "While studying at the King Edward VII Preparatory School (KEPS) in Johannesburg, I was part of their U-11 A side as an opener. Kirsten had come to know of my performances and it was a dream-come-true to have an opportunity to spend a week training with him back in 2013-14," Neyan, a class X student of Hiranandani Upscale School in OMR, said.
On the specific inputs the former South African opener gave, Neyan said: "He gave me a lot of insights on batting for long periods of time. He would stress on the aspect of putting a price on my wicket. His mantra is to constantly work on the game. In fact, during my innings against Goa - all those inputs proved to be relevant."
In recent years, Neyan has worked with former India player S Sriram and is currently being trained by former Kerala batsman Sreekumar Nair.