Abhishek, Mandeep steer Punjab

Punjab 184 for 4 (Abhishek 77*, Mandeep 63, Mayank 2-28) beat Delhi 183 for 7 (Badoni 80*, Rawat 34, Kaul 3-27) by 6 wickets

Coming in to bat in the fourth over after Sidharth Kaul sent opener Priyansh Arya and Yash Dhull back, Badoni stayed unbeaten till the end, holding together Delhi’s innings in Mohali as others around him fell without offering much support after Anuj Rawat’s early burst.

Rawat, who hit a fine half-century in the quarter-final, was largely responsible for Delhi’s early impetus. He hit five fours and a six as he raced to 34 off 22.

But after left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar accounted for Rawat, it was up to Badoni to shepherd Delhi to a fighting total and he did that with aplomb. The 23-year-old hit seven fours and four sixes as Delhi racked up 94 runs in the last ten overs.

Right-arm quick Mayank Yadav struck twice in the third over of the chase and Punjab lost Anmolpreet Singh as well at the end of the powerplay, but stayed abreast with the required rate as they piled on 55 runs in the first six.

Suyash took two wickets, to finish his campaign with 18 wickets from seven games. He is only behind Ravi Teja (19) in the wicket charts. Abhishek, who had a string of low scores after a blistering start to the campaign, moved up to second in the run charts.

Baroda end Assam and Parag’s dream run

Baroda 146 for 4 (Rathva 44, Jyotsnil 37, Sengupta 2-32) beat Assam 143 (Rishav 48, Denish 32, Rajput 4-29) by 6 wickets

Assam started well after being put in to bat. Openers Denish Das and Rishav Das took them to 46 before the former was out for 32 in the last over of the powerplay to Atit Sheth. Assam’s quarter-final hero Sumit Ghadigaonkar failed to make an impact and Parag was also out cheaply to leave Assam in trouble.