BHUBANESWAR 17-Oct-2012 171
Impressive performance by three players from Odisha helped defending champions East Zone reach the final of the Duleep Trophy Tournament for the second successive time after getting the better of South Zone by virtue of 23-run first innings lead at Vishakhapatnam today.
Among the Odisha trio, swing bowler Basant Mohanty shone with the bat, hitting a defiant 58 (4x4, 6x2) in the first innings and a useful 35 in the second. Leading the East Zone team, Odisha top-order batsman Natraj Behera schored 60 runs in the second innings.
Odisha all-rounder Biplab Samantaray shone in both the bowling and batting departments, scalping three wickets for 41 runs in the first innings and scoring 52 runs in the second essay. Among other notable East Zone performers, Bengal speedster Ashok Dinda devastated the South Zone second innings, bagging seven wickets for 26 runs.
Jharkhand batsman Sourav Tiwary`s century in the first innings helped East Zone overcome a top-order batting failure in the first innings. After East were bowled out for 215 in their second innings, South needed 239 runs in 51 overs (including mandatory overs) in order to win the match but in the end just about managed to avert outright defeat.
They were 85 for eight at the start of the mandatory overs when umpires decided to call off the match after consulting the two captains. They were in fact tottering at 42 for eight as Dinda had brilliant figures of seven for 26 while Basant Mohanty took the other wicket. Dinda, who got his 13th five-for in first-class cricket terrorized the South Zone top-order in a single spell to shut out any dreams that were harboured by Robin Uthappa and co.
Brief scores: East Zone 267 (S Tiwary 145, B Mohanty 58) and 215 (B Samantray 52, B Mohanty 35, R Vinay Kumar 3/10, S Binny 3/31) drew with South Zone 244 (B Samantaray 3/41) and 85/8 (Ashok Dinda 7/26).
