Cements march confidently into Dowla semifinals

India Cements won their third successive game in the Moin-ud-Dowla Cup at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad today to take their appointed place in the semifinals. After their opponents, the HCA President's XI, lost their way to be bowled out for 159 in the 47th over, VB Chandrasekhar led from the front with a solid 76 to see Cements home by six wickets with almost 13 overs in hand.

In the morning session, Tamil Nadu seamer DJ Gokulakrishnan grabbed four of the last five wickets to restrict the hosts to a moderate total. After being invited to make first use of the wicket, openers M Srinivas and Vijay Kumar added 49 runs inside 12 overs in the brightest part of the innings. Srinivas topped the runchart with 36 (43 balls, 7 fours). The middle order fell away and it was only a valiant 31 (53 balls, 2 fours) by R Sridhar that allowed the Presidents XI attain the modest reaches of 159. Gokul finished with the sprightly figures of 4/24 from 8.5 overs.

Hyderabad new ball bowler NP Singh struck two early blows to remove Jesu Babu and Rajesh Puri and leave Cements in a sticky situation at 23/2. But after Sunil Oasis was trapped leg before by R Sridhar for 12, former Tamil Nadu and India opener, Chandrasekhar and current Tamil Nadu middle order batsman S Sharath joined forces to put Cements well and truly on the victory march. When Chandrasekhar's occupation of the crease was finally ended by Santosh Yadav, courtesy a stumping by skipper and wicketkeeper Youraj Singh, he'd made 76 (113 balls, 11 fours). Cements were a mere 18 runs short at this stage and Sharath (42) and Gokulakrishnan safely negotiated the Presidents attack to terminate the contest with plenty to spare.