da esoccer bet： MRF suffered a heartbreaking seven wicket defeat to IndianAirlines in the quarter finals of the KSCA Diamond JubileeTournament for the Coromandel Cement Trophy at the MChinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday despite piling up an imposing321/3
Sankhya Krishnan08-Aug-2000MRF suffered a heartbreaking seven wicket defeat to IndianAirlines in the quarter finals of the KSCA Diamond JubileeTournament for the Coromandel Cement Trophy at the MChinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday despite piling up an imposing321/3. Their calculations were upset by a rain interruptionwhich revised their opponents’ target to 167 from 26 overs.Hemang Badani (man of the match) and Rajat Bhatia had putAirlines to the sword in the morning session but the latterhad the last laugh, cantering home with nine balls to spare onthe back of a classy knock from VVS Laxman.After MRF were put in to bat by Airlines skipper Vijay Dahiya,opener Aashish Kapoor stroked a rapid 25 from 23 balls beforehe fell to Javagal Srinath. Vineet Jain then sent backVenugopala Rao and Hrishikesh Kanitkar to leave MRF at 82/3 inthe 17th over. Tamil Nadu team mates Badani and Bhatia thenblasted an unbroken 239-run stand from 270 balls in two and aquarter hours. Badani helped himself to 143 (112 balls, 8fours, 5 sixes) while Bhatia galloped to 107 (113 balls, 6fours, 4 sixes).Chasing 322, Airlines began disastrously as Sriram Kannancastled Munish Sharma for a first ball duck. Arun Kumar andRavneet Ricky also flattered to deceive and IA foundthemselves in a pickle at 29/3 in the seventh over. Howeverjust over an hour into the chase, the heavens opened upleading to a stoppage for an hour and a quarter. When playresumed at 4.05 pm, Airlines were presented with a morecomfortable equation. Laxman and Dahiya extended theirassociation to an unbroken 138 and the victory was posted inthe penultimate over. Laxman remained undefeated on 95 (75balls, 4 fours, 6 sixes). Indian Airlines will square offagainst India Pistons in a three day semifinal at theChinnaswamy Stadium beginning August 11.