The first semi-finals of BCCI’s Corporate Trophy saw Air India Red beat ONGC by five wickets in a game that could have gone either ways at one stage. In the end, the winning team won the game by five wickets, with ten overs to spare.
Batting first, ONGC could get to only 213 before being all out in 48 overs. At 117/2 and 160/3 in 33.3 overs, they looked set for greater heights, but in the end capitulated to the bowling of virtually unheard of bowlers. Yuvraj Singh had started the rot by getting rid of Kohli, while another part-time bowler took the wicket of Gambhir to lead the totter. Gambhir scored 63.
In reply, the Air India Red side had no better a start. Naman Ojha was scalped by Munaf Patel in only the second over of the innings to leave them at 4/1. A partnership ensued between Robin Uthappa and Sushant Marathe that took the score to 98, before the former was given out lbw to Amit Mishra, and this led to another collapse. From 98/1, the Air India Red teams was soon 148/5 – losing Raina, Yuvraj and H.Kanitkar in the process cheaply.
Ankeet Chavan then joined Marathe and ensured that the Reds would get through to the finals without any further hiccups and with ten overs to spare.
Marathe was declared the man-of-the-match.
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