Parag, Kushagra lead East charge; North-East no match for South

East Juggernaut rolls on

After North-East, East Zone were probably considered the weakest team in the Deodhar Trophy, but perceptions have changed rapidly, with the Saurabh Tiwary-led side securing three consecutive wins to be level with South Zone, who are on a roll of their own.

After being reduced to 57/5 in 16 overs against North Zone in the third round of the Deodhar Trophy, East needed a lease of life, and that came from Riyan Parag, who staged an incredible fightback. Matching him for stroke to stroke was Jharkhand wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra, and the duo decided to take the fun out of North bowlers. 

The 181-ball partnership yielded 235 runs as East raced to 292 for 6 in 46 overs when Mayank Yadav, who was on a spree of his own, got the better of Kushagra for 98. Shahbaz Ahmed and Manishankar Murasingh played two quick cameos to guide the side to 337 - which would always be daunting for the North to chase down.

It helped that he would hardly let any momentum slip away in the zone that Riyan Parag had found himself in. He had broken North's back by dismissing Himanshu Rana, Mandeep Singh, Shubham Rohilla, and Sandeep Sharma. He found support from Shahbaz Ahmed, who scalped three wickets to propel the cause as East raced to an 88-run win.

Kunnummal heroics bury North-East

Rohan Kunnummal continues his excellent run of form, and his unbeaten 87 resulted in South Zone registering their third back-to-back win in the Deodhar Trophy. Vidhwath Kaverappa was once again the star of the show, as he scalped three wickets upfront to put North East in a position of no return. Meanwhile, Goa pacer Arjun Tendulkar ensured that impressive Anup Ahlawat couldn’t maintain the level of equanimity, which opened a floodgate of sorts.

R Sai Kishore was once again in the thick of things, as he sent Ashish Thapa back to the hut for a mere score of eight and later came back to send Lee Yong Lepcha and Imliwati Lemtur to wrap up North-East’s innings. It was impressive of Abhishek Kumar, whose 15 runs helped North-East recover from 88/8 to 136.

Chasing the mere total would always be easy-peasy for South, and Kunnummal’s 58-ball 87 was enough to achieve the target. The Kerala opener continued from where he had left off from the last game, and even though they lost skipper Mayank Agarwal in the process, the target was reached in 19.3 overs.

West Zone edge a thriller

Chasing 244, it looked like a lost cause for West Zone, but a calm run-a-ball 53 by Atit Seth and Rajvardhan Hangargekar's attacking 12-ball 24 shifted the game in their favour and, in the end, claimed a one-wicket victory with two balls to spare over Central Zone in Puducherry. Off-spinner Shivam Chaudhary's spell of 4 for 18 from 10 overs, which included the wickets of Central Zone skipper Priyank Panchal (36), Rahul Tripathi (2), Sarfaraz Khan (24) and Shivam Dube (7), seemed to have done enough to take his side over the line, but it wasn't to be. 

Earlier, Central Zone put up 243 for 7 in their 50 overs after winning the toss. As many as four batters got to over 40, with Yash Dubey top-scoring with 49. Some late flourish from Karn Sharma (44) and Shivam Mavi (47*), who put on 50 for the seventh wicket resurrected the innings to a certain extent. Mavi then put on an unbeaten 43-run stand off just 31 deliveries for the eighth wicket with Aditya Sarwate (5*) to take the score to over 240.

Central have now lost all three matches so far, while West move to third place in the six-team tournament with eight points.