Tata Motors and Sujanil advanced to the semifinals of the ABIL Corporate Cricket Champions Cup being played at the Deccan Gymkhana cricket ground over the weekend.Tata Motors confirmed their berth in the semifinal after defeating Sakaal by two wickets. After winning the toss and electing to bat, Sakaal notched up 130 for the loss of seven wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Sakaal started on the backfoot after losing wickets early in the innings. Sakaal batsmen Madhav Patil and Sunandan Lele started to recover the lost momentum by building up a good partnership. Madhav Patil scored a solid 29 off 22 deliveries with three hits to the fence and one going over the boundary line. Sunandan Lele anchored the Sakaal innings by scoring an impressive 42 runs off 40 deliveries with five boundaries. Waman Jere from Tata Motors was the pick of the bowlers, scalping two wickets for 22 runs. In reply, Tata Motors too started their innings on a slow note. Suresh Bhosale played an outstanding innings of 51 runs off 45 deliveries with five fours and one six. But he was without any support from the other end thanks to brilliant bowling from Mahadev Patil (three wickets for 22 runs) and Prasad Patil (two wickets for 22 runs). Sakaal appeared to have complete control over the game but some sloppy fielding cost them dearly. The Tata Motors victory was greatly assisted by Avinash Tikone's innings of 39 runs off 32 deliveries with one boundary and two sixes. The match went in for a close finish with Tata Motors requiring six runs of six deliveries, but they held their nerve and beat Sakaal with three balls to spare. Avinash Tikone was declared the man of the match.In another match, Sujanil defeated HDFC by 48 runs. Electing to bat Sujanil started their innings with great aggression with their opener Rahul Thigale leading the charge. He scored a fiery 86 runs off 57 deliveries with 14 hits to the fence. Shubham Nagawade from Sujanil also helped the team in putting up a huge total scoring a scintillating half-century. He scored 53 runs off 35 deliveries with eight hits to the fence and one towering six. Sagar Naik, who took two wickets for 38 runs, was HDFC's best bowler. In reply, HDFC batsmen Nitin Shukla (21 runs off 19 deliveries, four boundaries) and Prashant Jadhav (36 runs off 26 deliveries, two fours and three sixes) were the only batsmen who showed some resistance to Sujanil bowling. Rahul Thigale (three wickets for 24 runs) and Jagdish Varde (two wickets for 23 runs) made life difficult for HDFC batsmen and helped Sujanil bundle out HDFC for 135 runs in 19.3 overs. Rahul Thigale was declared the man of the match.Results:Sakaal 130/7 in 20 overs: Sunandan Lele 42(40), Madhav Patil 29(22), Sandeep Salokhe 22(17), Waman Jere 2/22; Tata Motors 132/8 in 19.3 overs: Suresh Bhosale 51(45), Avinash Tikone 39(32), Mahadev Patil 3/24, Prasad Patil 2 Man of the Match: Avinash TikoneSujanil 186/4 in 20 overs: Rahul Thigale 86(57), Shubham Nagawade 53(35), Sagar Naik 2/38; HDFC 138 all out in 19.2 overs: Prashant Jadhav 36(26), Nitin Shukla 21(19), Rahul Thigale 3/24, Jagadish Varde 2/23; Man of the match: Rahul Thigale
