Central hand North first Defeat

After two consecutive victories, North Zone were brought down to earth when Central Zone defeated them by three wickets in the Deodhar Trophy match at Pune on Tuesday.

North Zone's problems lay with their batting. When they started off losing half the side with only 74 runs on the board, it was always going to be an uphill task for them to come back into the match. HS Sodhi rocked them by dismissing Vijay Dahiya (8) and Ajay Jadeja (3) by the eleventh over. Jai P Yadav then took the wickets of Pankaj Dharmani (12) and Virendra Shewag (0) in the same over. And with left arm spinner Kartik Murali forcing the North Zone captain Vikram Rathour into giving him a return catch, North Zone were down in the dumps. Rathour played the sheet anchor role in hitting 37 off 68 balls with six hits to the ropes.

It was left to the latter half to bolster North Zone's total. First D Mongia (23) and M Minhas added 49 runs for the sixth wicket off 12.3 overs. The recovery process was maintained with Minhas and Rahul Sanghvi (44 not out) increasing the score by 79 runs off 15.5 overs during a seventh wicket association. Minhas then fell for a gallant 72, for which he faced 85 balls and hit four fours and a six. As if to mock the top order, Sanghvi and Amit Bhandari then added 34 runs for the eighth wicket off just three overs. Bhandari was run out for 18 off only 10 balls, hitting two fours and a six. Sanghvi faced 53 balls and hit four of them to the fence. North Zone were finally able to get a highly respectable 237 for eight off 50 overs.

Openers Gagan Khoda (71) and Jyoti P Yadav (30) got Central Zone off to a good start by putting on 77 runs off 16 overs. A second wicket stand of 50 runs off 13.3 overs between Khoda and Jai P Yadav (33) put Central Zone in a comfortable position. Khoda who played an attacking innings which lasted 84 balls, hit eleven fours. After he was second out at 127 in the 30th over, wickets fell at regular intervals thanks to some incisive bowling by Robin Singh. But D Bundela stood firm at one end. He and P Krishnakumar (19) shared a vital seventh wicket partnership of 35 runs off four overs and Central Zone were finally home with 2.1 overs to spare. Bundela remained unbeaten with a valuable 45. He faced 53 balls and hit five fours. Robin Singh's fine spell of four for 45 went in vain. This was Central Zone's first win in two games.