ACCOUNTANT General (AG) West Bengal, along with teams from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir stormed into the semi-finals of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA&AD) Inter-Zonal Cricket Tournament which is being conducted under the aegis of Accountant General Recreation Club (AGRC) of the Office of The Accountant General (Audit) II, Maharashtra, at Nagpur. In the quarter-finals, AG West Bengal defeated AG Chandigarh by 51 runs while AG Tamil Nadu registered a comfortable five wickets win over AG Rajkot. AG Jammu and Kashmir got the better off of last year’s runners-up AG Odisha by 25 runs and AG Rajasthan thrashed AG Kerala by 35 runs. Electing to bat first, AG West Bengal scored 186-6 in 20 overs thanks to a quick fire by opener Abhishek Kumar Raman who scored 57 off 35 balls (7x4, 1x6) and Gittimoy Basu (56; 30b, 3x4, 3x6) and three wickets by Prayas Roy Barman and two each by Sayan Ghosh and Vivek Kumar Singh. AG Chandigarh could only muster 135 runs for nine wickets in their 20 overs. Amit Parashar top scored with 49 runs.

In other quarters, AG J&K made 144-6 in allotted 20 overs. Paras Sharma (41), Mani Sharma (31) and Abid Mushtaq (25) were the scorers. Debobrata Pradhan took two wickets for Odisha. In reply, Odisha could manage only 119-8 in 20 overs. Biplab Samantray made 63 off 48 balls. Md Mudassir and Wasim Raza took two wickets each. AG Rajasthan beat AG Kerala by 35 runs. Rajasthan scored 157-6 in 20 overs. Arjit Gupta (59, 44b, 6x4, 1x6) and Rahul Tomar 29 were the run-getters. Manu Krishnan took three wickets. Chasing the target, Kerala were bundled out for 122 in 19.2 overs. Basil NP (26), Saly Vishwanath (19) and Manu Krishnan (19) were their main run getters. Rituraj Singh and Shubham Sharma took three wickets each for Rajasthan.

AG Rajkot, Gujarat lost to AG Tamil Nadu by five wickets. Gujarat scored 109 in 19.2 overs. Vipul Makwana (48) and Kishan Parmar (31) were the top run getters. For TN, Ashwath S took three wickets. In reply, TN knocked off the runs losing five wickets in 15.3 overs. Ashwath S (46; 31b, 3x4, 2x6) was the top scorer. Kuldeep Sharma took three wickets for Gujarat.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by Justice VM Deshpande, President, VCA. Lata Mallikarjuna, IA&AS, Director General, Regional Training Institute, and Praveer Kumar, Accountant General (A&E)-II, Maharashtra, Nagpur, were the guests of honour. R Thiruppathi Venkataswamy, Accountant General (Audit), Maharashtra, Nagpur, Naresh Kumar Manne, Dy Accountant General and Vinit Ghadge, President AGRC, Dinesh Mate, Sr Dy Accountant General, Akshay Khandare, Dy Accountant General, Sunita Gunashekhar, Dy Director, Finance and Communication, DA P&T, B Manimozhi, Dy Accountant General, S Haripriya, Dy Accountant General and others were present on the occasion. Astha Garg and Vandana conducted the programme. SEMIS: J&K vs Rajasthan; West Bengal vs Tamil Nadu.