Uttar Pradesh produced an all-round performance to post a four-wicket win over Kerala and make the final of the Buchi Babu cricket tournament here today.
The move by captain Mohd. Kaif to put Kerala in yielded the desired result as left-arm spinners Saurabh Kumar (6 for 45) and Kuldeep Yadav (3 for 66) ripped through the rival batting line-up.
Kerala, who were 132 for two in 33 overs, wilted against these two spinners to be all out 188 in 56.1 overs.
UP batsmen were up to the task and maintained their consistency to win the match by scoring 192 for six in 46.5 overs.
In the other semifinal match, TNCA President's most consistent batsman Baba Indrajit made a superb 165 after having missed centuries on three occasions in the tournament.
After the loss of openers in their match against TNCA, captain Badrinath (45) and Indrajith added 122 runs in 32.3 overs for the third wicket and then Indrajith put on another 110 runs in 24.5 overs for the fourth wicket with Vijay Shankar (49).
Indrajith hit 17 fours and two sixes.
In reply to TNCA President XI total of 365 all out in 100 overs, TNCA were seven without loss in 4 overs when stumps were drawn for the day.
Brief scores: Kerala 188 in 56.1 overs ( Abhishek Hegde 49, Niklesh Surendran 73, Saurabh Kumar 6/45, Kuldeep Yadav 3/66) lost to U.P. 192 for 6 in 46.5 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 32, Prasanth Gupta 54, Umang Sharma 32, Arish Alam 42 and Vinoop S Manohar 5/60) and TNCA Presidents XI 365 all out in 100 overs (K B Arun Karthick 28, Abhinav Mukund 28, S Badrinath 45, Baba Indrajith 165, Vijay Shankar 49, R Prasanna 2/33, Rahil Shah 2/98, R.Ashwin 4/83) versus TNCA 7 without loss in 4 overs.
