Capitalising on South Zone’s erratic batting display, West Zone registered a 71-run victory in their Deodhar Trophy opener at the Barabati Stadium here on Friday.
Capitalising on South Zone’s erratic batting display, West Zone registered a 71-run victory in their Deodhar Trophy opener at the Barabati Stadium here on Friday.
Amid casual approach from teammates who threw their wickets away, West skipper Wasim Jaffer came up with a responsible knock of 81 runs to help his team post 223 in 49.2 overs after electing to bat.
In reply, South could never stitch a partnership. They were dismissed for 152 in 42.2 overs.
West Zone got five points including a bonus mark and have virtually sealed their place in the summit clash to be held on March 18.
For South, Robin Uthappa scored a breezy 20 off 11 balls. He hit three boundaries in his short stay at the crease.
Uthappa was beginning to look dangerous, hitting two consecutive boundaries to medium pacer Siddarth Trivedi in the third over of the innings. But the Karnataka batsman was castled next over by Jitendra Patil. Earlier, Jaffer, who had to come early with Ajinkya Rahane at the other end, took his time to pace his innings.
The captain’s 81 came from 110 balls which had three boundaries in it. The Jaffer-Jadeja duo stitched 52 runs. Jaffer completed his 21st List A half-century from 75 balls. But when they were looking good and beginning to up the ante, a smart change by South skipper S Badrinath in the form of Uthappa bore fruit. After Jaffer got out, Jadeja (39) to followed the suit and fell off a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery. The Saurashtra allrounder hit three fours in his 44-ball knock.
There was a flurry of wickets with the last five tumbling in just six overs.
In another match, Delhi’s Virat Kohli hit a sizzling 79 not out to guide 11-time winners North Zone to a comprehensive seven-wicket win over defending champions Central in their Group A opener.
Kohli overshadowed a superb century by Central wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha (100) which helped his team pile up 250 for nine in the stipulated 50 overs.
In reply, North romped home with 13 balls to spare.
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