Champions League and First Class League – Chicago United in Finals!

In BPL’s Champions league (Pepsi Cup 50/50) Semi Finals Chicago United defeated Deccan Mavericks. Rain delayed start forced a reduction to 35 overs. Deccan lost the toss and were sent in to bat. The unorthodox openers, Syed and Anupum were challenged by duo speedsters Askari and Murtaza to put Deccan at 9/2 in 4 overs. At the end of the 10th over the score was 25/4. Karan contribute his valuable 37 runs with a few well timed maximums. Initially, several catches were dropped. However a brilliant catch by Altaf Quadri was the highlight. He also spun the ball well with 6-1-20-3 limiting Deccan to 101 all out in 27 overs.
Going into bat, CU lost their first wicket of Abhijit at 7 runs bringing in Venkatesh Naidu to join in form batsman Yaseen Shaik. At 35 runs in 11 over, Donieke Perrin replaced Venkatesh Naidu. Yaseen demonstrated great batting skills with a good mix of singles, boundaries and maximums (63 in 62 balls). A 68 runs partnership between Yaseen and Donieke led to a 8 wicket win in the 21st over . CU will play Northern Gymkhana in the finals.
In the First Class semi finals between Cardinals and Chicago United ‘A’, Cardinals loss the toss and were put to bat. Openers Mursaleen and Abhijit Joshi played aggressively and lost the 1st wicket of Mursaleen at 50 in the 5th over . Captain Abhijit (69), Sunny Bhatti (41) and Sami (67) put up a total of 242 in their 30 overs .
Cardinals lost 2 quick wickets in 2 overs at 14 runs. Kamran Syed lead Cardinals batting with aggressive batting. He was brilliantly caught at long off a few inches away and above the line by Sunny Bhatti. A catch that dismantled Cardinals batting . Shravan Kumar complimented with his good line and length bowling (5-0-29-4) restricting Cardinals by 74 runs in 20 overs . Mace will face Chicago United ‘A’ in the finals.