MRF suffered a heartbreaking seven wicket defeat to Indian Airlines in the quarter finals of the KSCA Diamond Jubilee Tournament for the Coromandel Cement Trophy at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday despite piling up an imposing 321/3. Their calculations were upset by a rain interruption which revised their opponents' target to 167 from 26 overs. Hemang Badani (man of the match) and Rajat Bhatia had put Airlines to the sword in the morning session but the latter had the last laugh, cantering home with nine balls to spare on the back of a classy knock from VVS Laxman.

After MRF were put in to bat by Airlines skipper Vijay Dahiya, opener Aashish Kapoor stroked a rapid 25 from 23 balls before he fell to Javagal Srinath. Vineet Jain then sent back Venugopala Rao and Hrishikesh Kanitkar to leave MRF at 82/3 in the 17th over. Tamil Nadu team mates Badani and Bhatia then blasted an unbroken 239-run stand from 270 balls in two and a quarter hours. Badani helped himself to 143 (112 balls, 8 fours, 5 sixes) while Bhatia galloped to 107 (113 balls, 6 fours, 4 sixes).

Chasing 322, Airlines began disastrously as Sriram Kannan castled Munish Sharma for a first ball duck. Arun Kumar and Ravneet Ricky also flattered to deceive and IA found themselves in a pickle at 29/3 in the seventh over. However just over an hour into the chase, the heavens opened up leading to a stoppage for an hour and a quarter. When play resumed at 4.05 pm, Airlines were presented with a more comfortable equation. Laxman and Dahiya extended their association to an unbroken 138 and the victory was posted in the penultimate over. Laxman remained undefeated on 95 (75 balls, 4 fours, 6 sixes). Indian Airlines will square off against India Pistons in a three day semifinal at the Chinnaswamy Stadium beginning August 11.

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