Air India Red defeated the ONGC by five wickets to enter the final of the inaugural BCCI Corporate Trophy cricket tournament.
Left-hand batsman Sushant Marathe cracked an unbeaten 80 for Air India Red.
After restricting Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to a modest 213 in 48 overs, Air India Red overhauled the target in just 40 overs, thanks to the 106-ball innings by Marathe, who was well supported by Robin Uthappa (45 off 49) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Gambhir and Kohli share 92-run partnership
Put into bat first, the ONGC failed to got off to a good start as paceman Dahawal Kulkarni (3/40) inflicted early blows by dismissing both the openers Praveen Kumar (12) and Sandeep Sharma (8) cheaply in consecutive deliveries in sixth over, leaving the oilmen struggling at 25 for two.
However, skipper Gautam Gambhir's 63 off 75 balls and a 57-ball 46 by Virat Kohli gave the ONGC a timely recovery.
Gambhir and Kohli stitched up a 92-run third wicket partnership, before the latter missed his half-century closely as Yuvraj Singh showed fine reflex to pouch a return catch in 25th over.
The left-hand India opener during his crucial innings hit four boundaries, while the Delhi batsman found an able ally in Kohli, who also cracked as may boundaries and smote the ball into the stand for maximum once.
After Kohli's return, Gambhir again teamed up with Tanmoy Srivastava (29 off 55) to add 43 runs on the board.
But the partnership was broken only when it was looking dangerous as Gambhir's ambitious effort off Robin Uthappa found Suresh Raina.
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