A breezy knock by Darshan S S and brilliant bowling by Ashwin (3-18) and Sai Kumar (2-20) helped Presidency School, Nandini Layout, post a commanding 229-run victory over Parachute Regiment School and earn a semifinal berth in the Boost Cup under-17 inter-school cricket tournament on Friday.

On the concluding day of the two-day tie, Presidency bundled out their rivals for a paltry total of 144 with Ashwin and Sai sharing five wickets between them.

Earlier, Darshan tore the PRS bowling apart while scoring a splendid 72 from just 70 balls. His knock, studded with eleven hits to the fence, steered Presidency to a big total of 199/7 in the stipulated 30-over second innings.
Sanjay (3-38) and Nikhil (3-72) efforts with the ball for PRS went in vain as Presidency bowlers came up with a terrific show.

In another quarterfinal clash, St Joseph’s Indian High School capped a last four berth with an equally convincing nine-wicket rout of Frank Anthony Public School.

Resuming from their overnight score of 209/6, St Joseph’s added 89 more to their total, thanks to an unbeaten 49 by Vigneesh.  Nihal F A too chipped in with an useful 39.

Then, Joseph’s’ bowlers took charge to restrict FAPS to 148/9 in 30 overs with Sandeep picking two wickets.
 Chasing a small total for win, St Joseph’s faced few problems in reaching the target riding on Ashishdhar’s 35 to romp home by nine wickets.

Brief scores: Presidency School, Nandini Layout: 276/6 in 55 overs and 199/7 in 30 overs (SS Darshan 72 n.o.; Sanjay 3-38, Nikhil 3-72) bt Parachute Regiment School: 102 all out in 27 overs and 144 all out in 23.4 overs (Varun 28, Chandra Ram 28; Ashwin 3-18, Sai Kumar 2-20).

Frank Anthony Public School: 201 all out in 54 overs (Abhijit S 127; U Vikas 4-53) and 148/9 in 30 overs (Shreyas Gopal 41; Sandeep 2-27) lt to St. Joseph's Indian High School: 298/7 in 55 overs (Nihal FA 39, S Vigneesh 49 n.o.; Shreyas Gopal 2-45, Abhijith S 2-104, Sumanth 2-31) and 50 for 1 in 9.2 overs (Ashishdhar 35 n.o.).