At the Don Bosco quadrangle today, Shivaji Nagar looked clumsy but were guided to a 69-57 victory over Central YMCA by their brilliant captain Pankaj Deshmukh. He scored 27 points, but it was his rebounds in defence, speed on fast breaks, assists and superb control that far outweighed the number of points he scored. Rightfully, he was declared the `Man of the Match.'

Earlier, BEG put in fine teamwork to defeat Central Railway (CR) 85-75. CR had a team full of veterans and they were never expected to run the fitter and faster BEG close. Central Railway were slow in transition, from offence to defence and were caught short by the hard-running BEG players.

Also CR's centre, Fazil Shaikh was not at all effective in the first-half giving his opposite number Om Prakash the opportunity to score from closerange.

Om Prakash was good from long distance also as was the average shooting of the entire BEG team. All five players scored over ten points bears an ample testimony.

Central Railway made a valiant bid late in the match through pressure defence, but BEG also found a way out -- quickly transferring from their defence to offence and scoring.

In the second semi-final, Donald D'Sa shot many three-pointers but it was not good to last. SNG, despite being clumsy in offence never let the lead slip from their hands.

In the second-half, Central YMCA had at least four players in foul trouble and once Donald D'Sa made his exit they gave up the fight. The man who made difference between defeat and victory for SNG was Pankaj Deshmukh.

RESULTS (Semi-Finals)

BEG 85 (Om Prakash 25, Atma Ram 21, Gurmit Singh 14, Sanjay Sawant 13, Satpal Singh 12) bt Central Railway 75 (Fazil Shaikh 23, Shaizad Shaikh 15, Imran Ansari 12, Hamid Ansari 10)

SNG 69 (P Deshmukh 27, Shatrughana Gokhale 12, S Garge 12) btCentral YMCA 57 (Sanju Joseph 22, Donald D'Sa 14, Wilfred Bradford 11).