Bengal to meet Delhi in Vijay Hazare semis

The seam trio of Shami Ahmed, Veer Pratap Singh and Laxmi Shukla shared eight wickets among them as defending champions Bengal crushed Karnataka by 10 wickets to set up a semi-final clash against Delhi in the National One Day Championship for Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Electing to field after winning the toss in the third quarterfinal, Bengal skittled out Karnataka for a paltry 127 runs in 32.1 overs as Shami (3 for 32), Veer Pratap (3 for 40) and Shukla (2 for 20) ripped through their batting line-up at Port Trust Diamond Jubilee Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

At one stage, Karnataka were 57 for six but Manish Pandey (28), Karun Nair (22) and skipper R Vinay Kumar (20) took the team to 127 before they were dismissed in the 33rd over.

The Bengal openers, Shreevats Goswami and Wriddhiman Saha, knocked off the target in 28.3 overs to register an emphatic victory. Goswami struck 10 fours and two sixes in his 79-ball 70 while Saha played an ably ally with 93-ball 52.