Orissa all set to host Deodhar Tropy at Cuttack

Orissa Cricket Association expressed readyness to host the Deodhar Trophy Limite-overs Tournament at Cuttack from March 13 to 18. With most of the established names doing National duty in New Zealand, a good opportunity has arrived for discards and emerging players to impress the selectors by performing well in the 36th edition of the tournament. This time, the inclusion Zimbabwe President’s team has added a foreign flavour to India’s main domestic one-day competition, which was earlier confined among five zonal sides. Before their India tour, the Zimbabwe team put up much-improved performance in Bangladesh and Kenya. Led by Prosper Utseya, the team would get a big boost in their rebuilding process if they do well here. Though Central Zone are the defending champions, West Zone will start as firm favourites following their Duleep Trophy triumph last month at Chennai. Led by Wasim Jaffer, eight-time champions West have a formidable batting line-up, which includes six of the top nine run-getters of the Ranji season. Though the strength of South Zone has reduced considerably in the absence of stars Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, M Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, L Balaji and S Sreesanth, Tamil Nadu’s victory in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final earlier this week is expected to stand them in good stead during the Cuttack campaign. National duty for star players has also made 11-time champions North Zone another weak side in the competition. They also have a new captain in Mithun Manhas. As the host, four-time winners East Zone will be a force to reckon with. The speciality of the team is that the selectors have chosen youngster Manoj Tiwari to lead the side. Presence of four Orissa players (Natraj Behera, Haladhar Das, Preetamjit Das and Rakesh Mohanty) is sure to provide East a lot of support from the crowd. The 36th edition of Deodhar Trophy will feature a total of seven matches. Teams have been placed in two groups and the group toppers will fight for the title on March 18. Matches will be played simultaneously at Barabati Stadium and Ravenshaw University ground. Though the Ravenshaw ground is a new venue, Orissa Cricket Association secretary Asirbad Behera assures that it is well equipped to deliver good service. He also ruled out any security concern as far as the new ground is concerned. With the arrival of most of the teams today, preparations for the tournament took a full circle. SCHEDULE: March 13: Central vs North (Ravenshaw ground): West vs South (Barabati Stadium) March 14: North vs East (Barabati Stadium): Zimbabwe vs South (Ravenshaw ground) March 16: Central vs East (Ravenshaw ground): Zimbabwe vs West (Barabati Stadium) March 18: Final (Barabati Stadium) PLAYERS TO WATCH: EAST ZONE: Manoj Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Natraj Behara, Halahadar Das, Rakesh Mohanty, Preetamjit Das, Ishank Jaggi, Deepak Sharma. ZIMBABWE: Prosper Utseya, Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu, Ray Price, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Vusi Sibanda, Elton Chigumbura SOUTH ZONE: S Badrinath, Robin Uthappa, Srikkanth Anirudha, Arjun Yadav, R Ashwin, Yo Mahesh. WEST ZONE: Wasim Jaffer, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhavik Thaker, Siddharth Trivedi, Abhishek Nayar. CENTRAL ZONE: Mohammad Kaif, Piyush Chawla, Murali Kartik, Pankaj Singh, RP Singh, Naman Ojha. NORTH ZONE: Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Chetanya Nanda, Akash Chopra, Virat Kohli, Pradeep Sangwan.