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Mumbai to meet Punjab in final

Chennai Sports Bureau

— PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI

ON TARGET: Punjab speedster Bharat Loomba is joy personified after breaching Kerala's Robert Fernandez's citadel.

Chennai: Mumbai will take on Punjab in the two-day final of the Buchi Babu all-India invitation cricket tournament here on Sunday.

Sushant Marathe (141 n.o., 230b, 7x4, 5x6) and Kaustab Pawar (101 n.o., 231b, 10x4, 2x6) engineered a convincing nine-wicket win for Mumbai over Karnataka in one semifinal on Friday, while in the other match, Punjab secured a 53-run win over Kerala thanks to Rahul Sharma's six for 58.

Efficient batting

Chasing Karnataka's 265 for nine for a place in the final, Marathe and Pawar ended the contest with 9.3 overs to spare.

The left-handed Marathe, who was dropped in the slips by Sunil Raju off Adithya Sagar when he had scored just one, saw out the new ball, resisting deliveries outside the off-stump and dealing with ones directed at the stumps with compact defensive play off either foot.

Pawar began less certainly than Marathe, but he grew comfortable against the spinners, milking them for ones and the occasional two. .

Marathe and Pawar increased the rate of scoring after lunch. The first session yielded 76 runs in 37 overs, the second, 124 in 30, the third, 66 in 13.3. Marathe, who had looked tranquil until lunch, smashed five sixes in the next two sessions.

Marathe then shut up shop to ensure his partner reached his hundred. With four runs needed for victory, Pawar clouted a four over extra-cover to move from 97 to 101.

Tall problems

In the other match, Sharma with his 6'4” frame and high-arm action combined to make his length extremely difficult to judge and his steep trajectory gave batsmen little clue of the ball's landing point.

Kerala's chase suffered twin setbacks in the 10th over of the morning, the bustling Bharat Loomba bowling opener V.A. Jagadeesh and number three Robert Fernandez off successive deliveries.

After that, left-handers Sambasiva Sharma (33) and Rohan Prem (39) steadied things before their 72-run stand ended in the fifth over after lunch when Rohan was run out.

This triggered a collapse, Kerala slumping from 92 for two to 122 for seven.

Good stand

After that, C.P. Rizwan (39) and 'keeper-batsman Sunil Thomas added 69 hard-fought runs for the eighth wicket before Sunil 45 (48b, 5x4, 1x6) fell to Sharma just when it looked like Kerala might come close.

The scores (semifinals):

Karnataka 265 for nine in 90 overs lost to Mumbai 266 for one in 80.3 overs (Sushant Marathe 141 n.o., Kaustab Pawar 101 n.o.).

Punjab 257 for nine in 90 overs bt Kerala 204 in 79.3 overs (Sunil Thomas 45, Rahul Sharma six for 58).

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