Titus & Co, Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal and Luthra & Luthra have reached the semi-finals of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) – Khushal T-20 cricket tournament after defeating their rivals in four quarter final matches played over Saturday and Sunday (20 and 21 March).

Highs and lows of the quarter finals were scored in the matches played between Luthra & Luthra against Bhasin & Co and Titus & Co against Lall & Sethi.

Luthra & Luthra thrashed Bhasin & Co with a stupendous 266 for a loss of 4 wickets, in what has been the highest score of the tournament so far. Bhasin was all out for 100 and its star player Rajat Mathur could only amass 34 runs.

Luthra player Hitesh Tara was declared man of the match for his 119 not out in 54 balls and for taking 3 wickets for 30 runs.

Luthra’s opening bowler and associate Sachit Mathur said: “We had a beautiful batting performance in the last match against Bhasin. Our starting was really phenomenal.”

“The level of teams has improved over the last two years,” he noted, but added: “We are really confident as we have been practicing hard; we have also scheduled practice for this entire week. There is no strategy, we’re just practicing hard and that’s it. We’ll play to the best of our potential and are hopeful of winning this tournament.”

Meanwhile team Titus bowled out opponents Lall & Sethi in a one-sided match that lasted less than an hour. A total of 12 overs were played by both the teams; Lall & Sethi was all out after scoring 27 runs in 11 overs, which Titus chased in 7 balls.

Titus player Raj Kamal was announced man of the match for taking five wickets for six runs.

Winners of the first and fourth quarter finals, Luthra & Luthra and Titus & Co will now be pitted against each other in the semi-finals scheduled for the coming Saturday.

Organisers and audience alike have viewed both these semi-finalists as very strong teams, and the winner of this semi-final will be a strong favourite to take the cup home.

Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal are the other two semi-finalist teams to vie for the final spot as they play each other this Saturday.

Amarchand defeated Kochhar & Co after setting up a target of 166 runs in 19.4 overs in the first innings. Kochhar could manage only 145 in reply.

Vaibhav Mishra won the man of the match title for making 55 runs of 39 balls. He also took 1 wicket.

In the third quarter final match Trilegal won against Anand & Anand.

Anand & Anand batted first to score 98 runs before the team was bowled out by Trilegal. In response, Trilegal successfully chased 102 for a loss of 3 wickets in 9.2 overs.

Captain Yogesh Singh was again declared man of the match for 23 not out and taking 4 wickets for 21 runs.

“It’s a relief to break the quarter finalist’s jinx. One of our strengths has been our non-reliance on individual performances, rather a team effort has kept us afloat and all our players have responded superbly,” commented Singh. “It takes some effort to achieve that, especially towards the end of the financial year.”

He added: “AMSS is a good team with similar strengths so it should be an interesting match. Our strategy remains unchanged – play well and enjoy the game.”

The two semi-final matches will be played on 27 March in Gyan Bharati School followed by the final the next day.

Photo by TC7