Jaipur: The dream run of Rajasthan colts came to an end with a five-wicket loss against Uttar Pradesh in the Men’s U-23 State A Trophy Elite semifinal at the BKC Ground in Mumbai on Saturday.After doing so well to reach the last-four stage, Rajasthan boys could not live up to the expectations and failed to enter their maiden final.Put into bat by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan did not have the best of starts and were reeling at 48 for 4. By the third over, Rajasthan were reduced to 5 for 2.In-form batters Karan Lamba (65: 76b, 2×4, 4×6) and skipper Rohan Rajbhar (52: 73b, 4×4, 3×6) hit fifties to help Rajasthan put up a respectable total of 239 for 9 in their 50 overs.Chasing a modest target, UP also struggled initially and were 38/2 in the seventh over. However, an excellent century by Ali Zafir Mohsin (108) and his 104-run partnership with Swastik (65) sealed the fate of Rajasthan as UP reached the target in almost ten overs to spare.Although Chetan Sharma picked up three wickets, he conceded 83 runs. Himanshu Nehra and Ganesh Suthar took a wicket apiece. Rest of the bowlers failed to make any impact.Brief ScoresRajasthan 239/9 in 50 overs (Karan Lamba 65, Rohan Rajbhar 52, Mukul Choudhary 32, Himanshu Nehra 28, Chetan Sharma 19, Sumit Goadara 17; Ankur Sharma 3-19, Vijay Kumar 2-37) lost to Uttar Pradesh 242/5 in 40.1 overs (Ali Zafir Mohsin 108, Swastik 65, Prashant Veer 34*; Chetan Sharma 3-83, Himanshu Nehra 1-35, Ganesh Suthar 1-52) by 5 wickets.
