HT Media, Hindustan storm into semis

Patna, February 9
Hindustan Times Media Limited and Hindustan stormed into the semi-finals of the 4th Airtel Media Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament winning their quarter-final matches with great comfort and élan at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Monday.

The day’s first match saw HT Media defeating runners-up Aj by six wickets while in the second match the Hindi daily of the same house Hindustan rattled Prabhat Khabar by nine wickets to set up semi-final clash with Dainik Jagaran slated for Wednesday. HT Media will take on defending champions Rashtriya Sahara in the first semi-final on the same day.

In the first match of the day, HT Media bowlers kept Aj batsmen on tight lease with their wicket to wicket attack. Suraj Dev (24) and Pramod Singh (29) tried to break the shackle with some lofty hitting. But they could not take it to a long way as Aj innings folded for 77 runs off 19.2 overs. Prashant of HT was the pick among bowlers claiming three wickets for 14 runs. Laxmi and Ghanshyam bagged two wickets each.

In reply, HT Media surpassed the target in 13.4 overs for the loss of four wickets. Saurav Kumar (HT Media), who scored 24 runs and took one wicket, was declared man of the match. Pradeep Modak, secretary, Sports Journalists Association of Bihar (SJAB) was the chief guest and he gave away the man of the match award to Saurav.

The second match of the day too nearly scripted the same story. Batting first Prabhat Khabar were soon in trouble losing three quick wickets including the precious one of Manish Kumar, who has been their batting main stay in the tournament thus far. Hindustan medium pacers Dilip Mishra and Arun Pratap did the damage most. The duo shared six wickets between them claiming three each. Prabhat Khabar were all out for 74 runs in 16.1 overs.

In reply, Hindustan began their chase in a whirl-wind fashion. After his three wickets haul, Dilip Mishra displayed his tremendous batting form clobbering Prabhat Khabar bowling in free-flowing manner. Dilip stroked in a quick-fire half-century (51, 8x4, 1x6, 34 balls). Hindustan reached the target in 11.1 overs losing one wicket. Dilip Mishra was later adjudged man of the match. Ramashankar Prasad, secretary, Bihar Fencing Association, gave away the man of the match trophy to Dilip.

Brief scores:
Aj: 77 all out in 19.2 overs (Surajdev-24, Pramod Singh-29, Prashant-3/14, Dilip Mishra-3/14, Laxmi Narain-2/12, Ghanshyam-2/14, Saurav Kumar-1/16)
HT Media: 78 for four wickets in 13.4 overs (Saurav Kumar-24, Neeraj-12, Surajdev-2/11, Pramod Singh-2/15)
Prabhat Khabar: 74 all out in 16.1 overs (Keshav-20, Rahul-3/24, Dilip Mishra-3/8, Arun Pratap-3/7)
Hindustan: 80 for one wicket in 11.1 overs (Dilip Mishra-51 not out, Abhishek-20 not out, Mirtunjay-1/13).

Photo caption: Hindustan (top) and HT Media Limited and Aj players (bottom) during the man of the match award functions of the 4th Airtel Media Cup cricket tournament in Patna on Monday.

Photo: Aftab Alam