Simba Union and Kanbis qualified for the semi-finals of the NPCA 50 overs tournament with wins over Cutchi Leva and Nairobi Nookers respectively.

Simba reached the last four of the event after scoring a 3-wicket victory over Cutchi Leva while Kanbis were nine wickets winners at Eastleigh High School.

Bowlers led by Gurdeep Singh helped Simba restrict the home team to 147 before the batsmen took over and lived to expectations, catapulting them home and dry in 24 overs.

Gurdeep picked 4 for 22 in his 8 overs. He accounted for the wickets of top scorer Vinod Rabadia (41), Nitin Varsani (5), Vishal Bhojani (1) and Dipak Pindolia (2). Tarandeep Singh picked 2 for 29 in 5 overs.

In reply, Gurmanjot Singh and Nadeem Ahmed made 35 and 38 runs respectively as Simba reached the target with three wickets in hand.

Gurmanjot and Simarpreet Singh put on a second wicket stand of 66 after Simba had lost Gurdeep for a duck. Simarpreet made 31. The other scorer for Simba was Zaheed Abbas with 28. Jigar Kerai was Cutchi Leva's best bowler.

At Eastleigh High School, league defending champions Kanbis cemented their place in this weekend's semi-final match with victory over Nookers who failed to raise enough players.

After winning the toss, Nookers opted to bat for fear of being subjected to a long day on the field and managed 127 in 32 overs, thanks to a half ton from Kennedy Obuya.

Obuya made 65 and put on 71 runs fourth wicket stand with Nitin Patel that got the scores to 95. Patel made unbeaten 30. Vinod Rabadia picked for 32 in 5 overs.

In reply Kanbis, only lost Mansukh Jesani for a duck but managed to win the game in an unbeaten stand of 124 between Narendra Kerai (62) and Dhiren Gondaria who made 47 not out.