Ishan Pandey struck a scintillating century as Tribhuvan University crushed Caribbean College by 136 runs to enter the semi-finals of the University Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament on Tuesday.

In the day’s second quarter-final match at the TU grounds, Pandey smashed an unbeaten 126 from 70 balls as TU amassed a tournament-high 207-4 in 20 overs. A collective bowling effort then saw Caribbean bundled out for just 71 runs in 19.3 overs. Bikram Sob, Sagar Dhakal and Prithu Baskota picked up three wickets each for TU. Sanjeev Adhikari top scored with 16 runs for the losing side. Pandey’s whirlwind knock was the highlight of the day as the left-handed batsman smashed 16 fours and five sixes. TU lost Rabin Joshi (duck) without adding a run on the board but Pandey shared 96 runs for the second wicket with Baskota to put his team into a strong position. Baskota chipped in 32 from 30 with four boundaries. Subash Khakurel made a 14-ball 24 with two boundaries and a six. Takshaka Simkhada took two wickets for Caribbean.

Earlier in the first quarter-final match, a middle order rally led by Kamal Singh Airee helped Cosmos College ease to a 47-run victory over New Summit College. Cosmos recovered from 51-4 to make 149-9 and restricted New Summit to 102-8. Airee, the U-19 international, put on 80 runs for the fifth wicket with Yogendra Singh Karki to bail his team out of trouble. Man-of-the-match Airee scored a 39-ball 56 with four sixes and as many boundaries. Karki made 25 from 30 and Sandeep Jhora struck a 12-ball 24 with five hits to the fence. For New Summit, Janmejay Yadav took four wickets.

Sharad Khadka and Karan Shah kept their team in hunt for victory with a 61-run partnership for the second wicket but Kushal Bhurtel dismissed both batsmen in a space of one run as New Summit fell way short of the target. Bhurtel took 3-4 from three overs.