MP, Tamil Nadu reach semis with easy wins

Madhya Pradesh cruised past Orissa to reach the quarter-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on the back of an impressive performance by their seamers and dominant knocks from Mohnish Mishra and Jalaj Saxena at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. After putting Orissa in, MP maintained a lid on their scoring rate by taking wickets at regular intervals. TP Sudhindra struck twice early and then Anand Rajan got into the act as well, and both finished with three wickets each. Orissa's innings never kicked off and they only managed 126 in their 20 overs. That proved an easy chase for MP, who reached the target in 17.4 overs. Mishra blazed his way to 48 off 27 and Saxena stayed unbeaten with 55 off 47, as MP won by eight wickets.

The morning game also saw an easy chase, with Tamil Nadu blasting their way past Delhi's 144 in just 16. 1 overs. M Vijay clobbered 38 off 18 balls, his opening partner Srikkanth Anirudha got 49 not out and S Badrinath scored 47 as Tamil Nadu got home with eight wickets in hand. Delhi chose to bat, but got off to a sedate start by Twenty20 standards, with opener Shikhar Dhawan taking 33 balls for his 36 and captain Mithun Manhas 34 balls to get to 31. Yogesh Nagar gave the innings some impetus in the end, smashing 44 off 21, but Delhi's total was well short of enough in the end.