The Under-16 Cricket team of Bhilai emerged as winners in the semis of Vinod Pendarkar Memorial Under-16 inter-district Cricket Tournament underway here.
Bhilai registered an easy win of 83 runs over Rajnandgaon in the tournament which is being organised by Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS). In another match, Bilaspur registered its victory over Raipur.
Earlier, after winning the toss Bhilai opted to bowl first which eventually turned out as the right decision. Batsman from Rajnandgaon could not stand against the bowling attack of Bhilai and were all sent back to pavilion just for 59 runs in 38 overs.
Naman Dhruv and Gaurav Sori spearheaded the Bhilai bowling attack by taking 4 and 3 wickets each respectively.
The Bhilai batsman had a good start. With two half-centuries by Subham Singh (64) and Anand Rao (52) from Bhilai amassed 185 runs.
From Rajnandgaon bowling squad Nishet shined and took seven wickets. In the second inning again Rajnandgaon batsman repeated their poor performance and the team was all out at 43.
In the second semi final match played here between Bilaspur and Raipur at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, Parseda in
Naya Raipur; Bilaspur emerged as winner on the basis of first innings lead over Raipur.Raipur which won the toss decided to opt for bowling. Bilaspur scored 186 runs in the first inning.
Adarsh Singh’s 71 remained the highlight of the innings. Gunjan Singh and Utkarsh from Raipur claimed 4 and 2 wickets respectively. Chasing the first inning score of Bilaspur, Raipur had a bad start and lost 2 early wickets at the score of 43 runs by the end of first day.
Resuming its overnight 43 for 2, Raipur team was all-out for 161 in 81 overs falling short of 25 runs in the first innings. Rishi Sharma and Pratik Yadav scored 41 and 33 runs respectively.
Imtiaz Khan and B Rakesh took 4 and 5 wickets respectively. In its second innings, Bilaspur scored 104 runs for the loss of 7 wickets on day two of the match.