West Zone win pushes Central to cellar position

West Zone comfortably defeated holders Central Zone by five wickets in the final round game of the Deodhar Trophy tournament at the Wankhede stadium on Monday. The result lifted West Zone to a record of two victories and two losses, the same as South Zone and East Zone. The defeat also pushed Central into the last position in the five team round robin with one win and three losses.

Central Zone were never really in with a chance after being restricted to 207 for eight in 50 overs. Put in to bat, Central were rocked early by Zakir Khan who dismissed both the openers Gagan Khoda and Jyoti Yadav with only 24 runs on the board. The Central innings was put back on course by a third wicket partnership of 46 runs off 9.5 overs between Jai P Yadav (31) and Amay Khurasia (22). But the dismissals of both the batsmen in the space of three balls was a double blow which Central Zone could ill afford.

Sanjay Bangar (24) and D Bundela then initiated another recovery process by adding 42 runs for the fifth wicket off 12.2 overs. The rally was continued by Bundela and Abbas Ali (19) who put on 49 runs for the sixth wicket off 12.5 overs. Bundela carried on gamely and remained unbeaten with 78 off 112 balls with six hits to the ropes. But there was always a doubt whether a total of 207 for eight in 50 overs could pose a serious challenge for the strong West Zone batting lineup.

Openers Sitanshu Kotak (45) and Cecil Williams (28) put West Zone on course with a partnership of 53 runs off 13.2 overs. Bundela then followed up his good knock by dismissing Vinod Kambli for 23 and Amol Muzumdar for eight. With West Zone 102 for three in the 25th over, there seemed some glimmer of hope for Central Zone. But the obdurate Kotak was still there and he and Abhijit Kale took the score to 141 before the Saurashtra left hander played a lofted drive off Jai Yadav and gave Jyoti Yadav a catch. Skipper Nayan Mongia did not last long but the in form Kale was unstoppable. He and A Dani set the seal on West Zone's supremacy with an unbroken partnership of 42 runs for the sixth wicket. Kale remained unconquered on 68 off 76 balls with seven hits to the ropes as victory was achieved with three overs to spare.