West, North post win in Deodhar Trophy matches

Captain Wasim Jaffer`s labourious knock of 81 guided favourites West Zone to a convincing 71-run win over South Zone in a Group-B match of the 36th West Deodhar Trophy Tournament at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack today. Jaffer’s 110-ball knock, which included only three boundaries, helped West compile a competitive total of 223 before being all out in 49.2 overs. In reply, a hapless South suffered a top-order batting failure to be dismissed for 152 in 42.2 overs. The win fetched West five points, including one bonus point, while South ended with one minus point. West play their last group league match against new entrants Zimbabwe XI here on March 16, while South take on the lone foreign side at Ravenshaw University ground tomorrow. On a slow Barabati wicket, Jaffer displayed much needed patience and application to come up with the match-winning knock. Knowing it well that the track was not ideal for stroke play, Jaffer chose to graft his way ahead, hitting only three boundaries in the process. Besides Jaffer, Ravindra Jadeja (39), Ajinkya Rahane (33) and Cheteswar Pujara (33) made modest contribution to the West Zone total. Left-arm speedster Sreesanth Arvind was the most successful South Zone bowler, bagging four wickets for 41 runs, his best performance in domestic limited over cricket. A target of South 224 though looked easy to chase, South made hara-kiri by playing too many strokes too early. The top half of the batting line-up was back in the pavilion with only 64 runs on the board. Only a defiant 47 by Manoj Sai and his sixth-wicket partnership with R Ashwin (27) saved the side from a complete collapse. SCOREBOARD WEST ZONE: P Patel c Uthappa b Shoaib 3, A Rahane b Uthappa 33, W Jaffer c Uthappa b Aravind 81, C Pujara b Appanna 33, B Thaker c A Yadav b Appanna 13, R Jadeja c Mahesh b Ashwin 39, A Nayar c Appanna b Aravind 0, K Makvana not out 11, J Patil b Aravind 0, I Abdullah b Aravind 0, S Trivedi c Appanna b Mahesh 0: Extras (lb-4, w-3) 7 Total (all out 49.4 overs) 223 Fall of wickets: 1/9, 2/51, 3/111, 4/143, 5/195, 6/198, 7/215, 8/215, 9/215, 10/223 Bowling: SM Shoaib 7-0-40-1, S Aravind 10-0-41-4, VY Mahesh 7.2-0-23-1, R Uthappa 5-0-23-1, R Ashwin 10-0-49-1, K Appanna 10-0-43-2. SOUTH ZONE: S Aniruddha c Jaffer b J Patil 14, R Uthappa b J Patil 20, D Ravi Teja lbw S Trivedi 1, S Badrinath b A Nayar 15, A Yadav c Jadeja b A Nayar 10, M Sai c Abdullah b Makvana 47, R Ashwin c Jaffer b Abdullah 27, Yo Mahesh lbw Abdullah 5, S Arvind c Thaker b Makvana 0, K Appanna lbw Jadeja 1, S Shoaib not out 3: Extras (lb-1, w-7, nb-1) 9. Total (all out, 42.2 overs) 152 Fall of wickets: 1/24, 2/37, 3/37, 4/63, 5/64, 6/108, 7/138, 8/139, 9/140, 10/152 Bowling: Siddharth Trivedi 7-2-22-1, Jitendra Patil 7-0-38-2, Abhishek Nayar 6-1-26-2, Ravindra Jadeja 9-2-28-1, Iqbal Abdullah 8-0-20-2, Kamlesh Makvana 5.2-0-17-2. OJHA TON IN VAIN AS CENTRAL LOSE: A sparkling century by Madhya Pradesh wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha and his 104-run partnership for the third wicket with skipper Mohammad Kaif (46) went in vain as defending champions Central Zone went down to North Zone by seven wickets in another match (Group-A) of the day at Ravenshaw University ground here. Electing to bat on a perfect wicket, Central rode on a 111-ball 100 by Ojha to post a healthy total of 250 for nine in the stipulated 50 overs. Ojha hit six fours and four sixes to register his third hundred in List-A cricket. But an unbeaten 79 (87 balls, 4x10, 6x1) by Virat Kohli and an 89-run partnership for the opening wicket between Akash Chopra (56 off 78, 4x8) and Rahul Dewan (38) enabled North Zone overhaul the target with 2.1 overs to spare. All the five North batsmen tasted success with captain Mithun Manhas making 44 and Rajat Bhatia contributing an unbeaten 25. Kohli and Manhas made the victory an easy task for North, stitching together 78 runs for the third wicket. With this win, North secured four points, while Central drew blank. North next meet host East Zone here on Saturday, while Central face East at Ravenshaw University ground on March 16. SCOREBOARD CENTRAL ZONE: T Srivastava c Manhas b Sangwan 7, N Ojha c Nagar b Bhatia 100, R Bishnoi c Nanda b Bhatia 26, M Kaif lbw Nanda 46, R Shukla c Kohli b Malik 22, J Saxena b Malik 23, P Chawla c Manhas b Sangwan 7, B Kumar c Kaul b Sangwan 3, Pankaj singh not out 4, M Kartik c Chopra b Malik 2, RP Singh not out 2: Extras (lb-1, w-4, nb-3) 8 Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) 250 Fall of wickets: 1/23, 2/79, 3/183, 4/200, 5/223, 6/232, 7/241, 8/241, 9/244 Bowling: VS Malik 10-2-38-3, P Sangwan 9-0-55-3, C Nanda 10-0-28-1, R Bhatia 9-0-57-2, Y Nagar 8-0-50-0, M Manhas 4-021-0. NORTH ZONE: A Chopra run out (U Yadav) 56, R Dewan c Srivastava b RP Singh 38, V Kohli not out 79, M Manhas c RP Singh b Pankaj Singh 44, R Bhatia not out 25: Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-6, nb-1) 9 Total (3 wkts, 47.5 overs) 251 Fall of wickets: 1/89, 2/107, 3/185 Bowling: RP Singh 8.5-0-61-1, B Kumar 6-1-31-0, Pankaj Singh 9-0-44-1, M Kartik 8-0-38-0, JS Saxena 5-0-14-0, P Chawla 8-0-45-0, M Kaif 3-0-16-0.