Beat MIG, Mumbai by 43 runs to book their place in the semifinals; Maharashtra Cricket Association joins the party

"It is not the victory my side looks, but a game of good cricket," were the few words the Cadence Cricket Academy's chief coach David Trist had to say after his side had posted 203 on board in the quarter-finals of the Cadence under-13 Cricket Tournament, at their own back yard here on Tuesday.

Looking at the score board, with MIG, from Mumbai cruising at 57 for one in 9 overs, David was quick to comment a place in the semi-final would be a great achievement. And it was there as the Cadence Academy bundled out their rivals MIG, Mumbai for 160.

After some floppy fielding wherein the Mumbai side dropped a few catches, they failed to make amends as they ran out of the match with four of their players getting run out.

It was a very cautious start by the hosts as they lost their opener Akshay Yadav with the score reading 36, but the second wicket pair of Nikhil Shinde (80) and Vishal Bhosale (45) stedied their innings as they put on 90 runs for the wicket in a slow pace (16.5 overs). But the late burst by Akash Gade who was dropped twice, struck 40 of just 23 deliveries to take the score cross the 200 mark (203) Shinde and Gade remained unbeaten.

"It was a good match to win," said the Cadence's assistant coach, Harshal Phatak after his pep talk with the boys. But, he had reasons to bother in their semi-final encounter and was sure that his young side would make alter their approach in the next outing. "They dropped a few and their fielding was also not good, but we also floored a few so we have to work on certain aspects," he added.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Cricket Association joined the Cadence in the semi-finals beating the giant killers Chandrakant Pandit Cricket Clinic (CPCC) by four wickets.

Brief scores:

Cadence Academy: 203 Nikhil Shinde 80 n.o, Vishal Bhosale 45; Adwait Mudras 1-24, Prithvi Shaw 1-38) bt MIG, Mumbai 160 (Avishkar Patil 43, Omkar Jadhav 34; Ramesh Arvind 2-9, Sahil Kothari 2-25, S Mukherjee 1-33, R Durgamcherur 1-23)

CPCC 249-5 (Akash Luthra 93 n.o, Sarfaraz Khan 61, Jay Bishta 39, Arman Jaffer 21; I Ptahan 2-55, J Zope 1-16) lost to MCA 253-6 (Abhishek Rao 64, Mayur Khair 51 n.o, Prashant Kore 28, Ajay Kale 23, Aditya Shinde 22 n.o; A Luthra 4-25, A Ansari 1-38)

Joe Williams/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication