Champs Chemplast take on CAG in final

Defending champions Chemplast will meet Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the final of the BCCI Corporate Trophy after the two teams ousted BPCL and India Cements in the semifinals respectively on Thursday.

Chemplast rallied splendidly from a difficult position while chasing BPCL’s score of 258 to register a thrilling two- wicket victory with four balls to spare in one of the semifinals of the 50-over event at Ahmedabad’s Motera Ground.

In the other semifinal at the MCA’s BKC Ground here, unheralded CAG shocked last year’s runners-up India Cements by five wickets after bundling out their rivals for a meagre 153 and then overhauling the target with almost 18 overs to spare.
The final will be played here on Saturday.

In the Chemplast-BPCL match, the holders were struggling at 86 for 4 and then 156 for 6 before a crucial 86 -run partnership between C Hemant Kumar (60 n.o., 51b, 6x4) and V Ashwin (44, 43b, 3x6, 1x4) bailed them out.

Brief scores: BPCL: 258 all out in 49.3 overs (Manish Pandey 52, Vineet Indulkar 42, Surya Kumar Yadav 38, Abhishek Nayar 57 n.o.; R Suthesh 2-46, P Parmeshwaran 2-62, Piyush Chawla 2-64) lt to Chemplast: 264/8 in 49.2 overs (N Einstein 74, C Hemant Kumar 60 n.o, V Ashwin 44; S Netravalkar 2-48).
India Cements: 153 all out in 40.1 overs (S Badrinath 51; Rameez Khan 3-12, Imtiyaz Ahmad 4-35) lt to CAG: 154/5 in 32.1 overs (AS Lamba 59, Bhavesh Shetty 39; B Aparajith 2-18).