Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 24: Defending champion West Bengal today beat J&K by 8 wickets to reach final of the 27th All India Postal Cricket Tournament being held at Srinagar. In another semifinal match Uttar Pradesh defeated Assam by seven wickets to take on West Bengal tomorrow in the final match scheduled at Kashmir University.
Today in the first semifinal match played at Kashmir University J&K won the toss and decided to bat first. In the early overs both the openers played well with some cracking shots of Ishtiyaq who hit two sixes and a four. However, in a bid to accelerate score Ishtiyaq was run out on 18 and the entire team was all out on 81 runs in 19.2 overs. Soham Gosh of Bengal played a key role in containing the innings of J&K by taking 4 wickets in 2.2 overs and conceding 12 runs.
Chasing the target of 82, the openers of West Bengal gave a solid start to their team and easily achieved the target in 10 overs for the loss of two wickets. Saik Gosh scored highest 26 runs for West Bengal. Soham Gosh was awarded man of the match for 4 wickets in 2.2 overs and giving 12 runs only.
In the second semi-final Assam was bowled out on 89 in 17 overs by Uttar Pradesh. K. Dass scored highest 40 runs (not out) for Assam while Jai Dev Bisht took 3 wickets for Uttar Pradesh.
Assam gave tough fight to Uttar Pradesh in achieving the target but finally Uttar Pradesh won the match in 18th over for the loss of 3 wickets and scored 93 runs. Akhilesh Mishra scored 34 runs for Uttar Pradesh while Jai Dev Bisht awarded man of the match for 3 wickets in 3 overs for 2 runs.
Now, West Bengal will meet Uttar Pradesh in the final match to be played tomorrow in a bid to retain the trophy while J&K will clash with Assam for the third slot in the tournament. Both the matches will be played in the Kashmir University. Award ceremony will be held tomorrow in the Kashmir University campus in which Vice Chancellor Kashmir University Dr. Talat Ahmad will be chief guest.
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