Riding on a blistering century from Ajay Reddy, India stormed into the final of the SBI T20 World Cup for the Blind with a 123-run victory over Sri Lanka here on Wednesday.
Electing to bat, the host lost the in-form Prakash Jayaramaiah for 27. Jayaramaiah’s wicket did not stop the now expected avalanche of runs from the team, with Ajay Reddy going hammer and tongs to reach his century off 40 balls. At the end of 10 overs, India was sitting pretty at 184 for one, before a spate of wickets kept India to 318 for eight in its 20 overs, a formidable total nevertheless. Sri Lanka’s chase went nowhere, and the Lankans were well and truly out of the contest when the first 10 overs produced only 93 runs for the loss of four wickets.
In the other semifinal at the Central College grounds, Pakistan whipped England to set up an India-Pakistan final.
The scores: India 318 for eight in 20 overs (Ajay Reddy 134, Ganesh Bushara 59 n.o., Ketan Patel 54, Prakash Jayaramaiah 27) bt Sri Lanka 195 for six in 20 overs (Deshapriya 111 n.o., Ravindra 20, Ajay Reddy two for 23); England 181 for nine in 20 overs (Matt Dean 61, Dan Field 21 n.o.) lost to Pakistan 184 for one in 12.2 overs (Mohammad Akram 103 n.o., Aamir Ishfaq 36 n.o., Aleem Murtaza 29).
