Delhi to lock horns with Punjab in National 20-20 final

Chandigarh, Nov 18 (UNI) Delhi pulled off an upset beating favourites Baroda by nine wickets in the semi-final of the first National Under-19 Twenty-20 Cricket Championship at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium here.

Delhi will meet strong contenders Punjab who defeated local favourites Chandigarh by seven wickets in the other semi-final encounter.

Put into bat, the Baroda batsmen played rash shots and managed to muster only 70 runs in 19.2 overs. Only Jignesh Oza (11) and Raghuvir Jadav (19) reached the double-digit mark.

For Delhi, Anuj Jain (3 for 7), Vishu Tomar (2 for 6) and Rohit Yadav (2 for 25) destroyed were the destructive force behind their opponents' meek surrender.

Delhi disposed of the Baroda challenge in a mere 4.5 overs, losing only their opener Gaurav Upadhayay to Dhaval.

In the second semi-final, Chandigarh elected to bat ater winning the toss and suffered an early setback as their star opener Amit Prashar was out without disturbing the scoreboard. Left handed Karan Sharma (16) joined opener Sarul Kanwar (15) to stich a 31 run partnership.

However, Varun Sharma (2 for 20) put the brakes on this partnership by having Sarul caught behind. Simran Singh top scored with 28, studded with two fours. Vishwajit bagged two wickets for 10 runs as Chandigarh made 101 for 8 in 20 overs.

Punjab easily overhauled the Chandigarh total, losing three wickets in the process. Punjab started on a dismal note, losing their opener Kunal Sehdev to a run out after making just 14 runs.

Varun Sharma (14) and Vipandeep (38, 4x4s, 2x6s) carried Punjab's total to 67 with a 48-run partnership before the former was caught by Japneet off Rozal Batra. Teerath Ram (16) and Digvijay Sandhu (10) remained not out as Punjab achieved their target in 17.3 overs.

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