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If veteran left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi felt the national knock-out one-day series would pitchfork youngsters into the reckoning for an Indi...

If veteran left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi felt the national knock-out one-day series would pitchfork youngsters into the reckoning for an India cap, Suresh Raina made a real bid for that spot.

Using the platform to the optimum, the 18-year-old dished out an all-round performance 4-33 and an unbeaten 82-ball 72, which was instrumental in Uttar Pradesh8217;s three-wicket win over defending champions and hosts Mumbai in the semi-final at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday.

On Thursday, UP will meet Tamil Nadu 8211; who defeated Bengal by 27 runs at the Cricket Club of India CCI 8211; for the title.

Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat and openers Wasim Jaffer 26 and Manish Bangera 46 were associated in a 71-run partnership for the first wicket. The Jaffer-Bangera alliance was the only silverlining for Mumbai though. None of the batsmen, excluding Praful Waghela 31 and Wilkin Mota 31 were able to captalise on their starts.

8216;8216;For how long can you survive on your past laurels?8217;8217; asked a furious Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit. 8216;8216;It was a bad performance and we got what we deserved,8217;8217; he added.

The former India stumper, was all praise for the opposition and particularly Raina though. 8216;8216;They are a young side and it was a disciplined performance from them. Raina showed a lot of character. He batted exceedingly well,8217;8217; Pandit said after the match.

A resident of Ghaziabad, Raina started playing serious cricket in 1999 at the Sports Hostel in Lucknow. Though the southpaw is known for his batting abilities, it was his bowling that did the trick for UP initially. Raina accounted for Amol Muzumdar, Vinit Indulkar, skipper Sairaj Bahutule and Ramesh Powar, to put the skids on the Mumbai innings, which later proved to be one of the facotors in UP8217;s win. 8216;8216;Our gameplan was to restrict Mumbai. Our bowlers R P Singh and Praveen Kumar bowled a good line and I got going too,8217;8217; the Second-Year Bachelor of Arts student from Lucknow University said.

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Defending a low score in humid conditions is never an easy task for the bowlers. Presumably, it was too much for Mumbai to pull off a miracle in the end.

RAINA FACT BOX

8226; Joined Sports Hostel, Lucknow, 1999

8226; Captained UP8217;s under-16 team

8226; Was picked for the India under-19 team during the Junior World Cup in Bangladesh 2004

8226; Attended the Australian Centre of Excellence in Brisbane in 2004 along with Shikhar Dhawan and Venugopal Rao

8226; Scored his maiden Ranji Trophy century against Andhra Pradesh last season

Brief Scores

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Mumbai 221-9 in 50 overs Manish Bangera 46, Praful Waghela 31, Wilkin Mota 31; Suresh Raina 4-33 lost to Uttar Pradesh 222-6 in 45.5 overs Suresh Raina 72 n o, Rohit Prakash 44, Pravin Kumar 26; Nilesh Kulkarni 3-33 by four wickets

Tamil Nadu 277 in 50 overs Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan 123, Hemang Badani 54; S S Paul 3-40, Rohan Gavaskar 2-52, Ranadeb Bose 2-46 bt Bengal 250 in 49.3 overs Manoj Tiwari 58, Deep Dasgupta 41; S Sriram 5-43 including a hat-trick by 27 runs.