IA enters semis

Lucknow, May 6 (UNI) Team India discard Mohd Kaif, struggling to overcome his poor batting form since long, today shone with the bat with a sparkling unbeaten 82 against Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) in the Sahara City Homes Sheesh Mahal Cricket tournament here.

Indian Airlines (IA) became the first team of Pool B to enter the semi-finals beating UPCA by a huge margin of 119 runs at the Chowk stadium.

In the other league match of the tournament at the K D Singh Babu Stadium, Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) earned full four points beating Pakistan's Rashid Latif XI in a cliff hanger encounter by one run in the last over.

The PCA started aggressively and tackled the Pakistani bowlers at ease, after the fall of their first wicket, in from Karan Goel who scored 23 runs, Udai Kaul in partnership with Opener S Sohal added 50 and 84 runs respectively, which consolidated their position.

However, the other batsmen failed to respond accordingly.

PCA's packed their bags in 39 overs scoring 214 runs.

Rashid Latif XI's Fahadullah Khan tried his best to register the second win for his team to qualify for the semis, but PCA's fine bowling accompanied by good fielding created pressure on them.

Kakkar by trapping Malik Aftab on the third ball of the last over earned a much sought after victory for his team by single run. Latif XI scored 213 runs in 39.3 overs.

At the Chowk stadium, Kaif after a long gap showed his sparkling knock of 82 with six bounderies.

Skipper Dhaiya (43), M Bisla (58) and Deepak Joon (40) also played a good hand taking the total to 279 for the loss of four wickets in 40 overs.

In reply, UPCA did not responded well against the spin of Ajit Chandela (3/30), Vineet Jain (2/36) and Medium pacer Arun Pandey (3/25). The UPCA conceeded 119 runs defeat after scoring 160 runs in 31.4 overs.

UNI