Special dinner for Team India at Gautam Gambhir’s house in Delhi | T20 World Cup
The hosts will now take on Jammu and Kashmir in the semi-finals starting on February 15. Karnataka will face Uttarakhand in the other semi-final. On Day 5, Andhra’s main objective was to avoid an innings defeat, but left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed played a crucial role as he used the wearable surface to break the resistance. Shahbaz finished with impressive figures of 4 for 72 while Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal took two wickets. Akash Deep, Sumanta Gupta and Anustup Majumdar took one wicket each. Mohammed Shami, who is currently out of favor at international level, bowled just three overs in Andhra’s second innings after contributing with the bat to Bengal’s first innings score of 629. For Andhra, Nitish Kumar Reddy was at the center of the collapse and showed determination in a gritty 90 off 144 balls that included seven fours and two sixes. Chasing 270 to force Bengal to bat again, Andhra needed a crucial stand between Reddy and skipper Ricky Bhui. However, Bhui was dismissed by Shahbaz after adding only 12 runs to his overnight tally. Shahbaz accounted for Saurabh Kumar early before removing Reddy to complete a brilliant spell. Tripurana Vijay scored 46 and Kalidindi Raju added 25, but their efforts only delayed the inevitable as Gupta dismissed Vijay to seal an emphatic victory for Bengal. Goalkeeper KS Bharat did not take the field due to injury.