Mumbai to meet Punjab in final

Chennai, Jan 8 (UNI) Mumbai will taken on Punjab in the four-day final of the Vijay Merchant under-17 cricket tournament here from January 11.

On the third and final day of the semifinals here today, both Mumbai and Punjab made the grade by virtue of their first innings lead over Delhi and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

In the first match, Mumbai skittled out Delhi for 113 in 57.2 overs to gain a huge 215-run lead. Delhi lost the last six wickets for 24 runs in 15.5 overs, with Syed Abdullah Iqbal claiming five of them in a space of 49 balls conceding only 15 runs. Iqbal claimed six for 43 overall.

Yogesh Nagar top scored for Delhi with 39. Last match centurion Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, son of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, was dismissed for four runs here.

However Mumbai, which scored 328 in the first innings, did not enforce the follow on and opted to bat for the second time and reached 139 for five in 46 overs.

Nikhil Patel Junior remained unbeaten on 33 when the play was called off.

In the other semifinal match, Uttar Pradesh, resuming at 99 for three, folded up for 213 in 87 overs, handing a 130-run lead to Punjab.

Bhawani Singh (34) and Umang Sharma (76) were the top scorers, as Uttar Pradesh lost wickets at regular intervals and Punjab's first innings score of 343 proved to be a tall order.

Right arm medium pacers Siddarth Kaul and Mohit Mohindra claimed two and three wickets respectively and off spinner Krishan Alang chipped in with three wickets for Punjab, which made 103 for two in 28 overs in the second essay when the match was called off.

Himanshu Chawla scored an unbeaten fifty off just 71 balls.

UNI