India Cements slumped from a strong position of 121 for three in 25 overs to 153 in 40.1 overs and lost to Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in the semifinal of the BCCI Corporate Tournament for the Raj Singh Dungarpur Trophy here on Thursday. Put in to bat, Abhinav Mukund (23), S. Badrinath (51) and K.B. Arun Karthik (17) scored at close to five-an-over before medium-pacer Imtiaz Ahmed sliced through the IC middle order taking four wickets. Once Dinesh Karthik (11) fell to a superb catch by Arpit Vasavda off Rituraj Singh, the IC innings came apart with 55 balls remaining.
In the second semifinal at Motera, R. Suthesh struck two sixes in the first two balls of the last over sent down by left arm seamer Saurabh Netravalkar to take defending champion Chemplast into the title match.
The scores:
At Mumbai: India Cements 153 in 40.1 overs (S. Badrinath 51, Rameez Khan three for 12, Imtiaz Ahmed four for 35) lost to CAG 154 for five in 32.1 overs (Ankit Lamba 59, Bravish Shetty 39, Ankur Julka 28).
At Ahmedabad: BPCL 258 in 49.3 overs (Manish Pandey 52, Vinit Indulkar 42, Suryakumar Yadav 38, Abhishek Nayar 57 n.o.) lost to Chemplast 264 for nine in 49.2 overs (N. Einstein 74, R. Satish 27, Hemant Kumar 60 n.o., V. Ashwin 44).