R. Sai Kishore’s three-wicket haul (3 for 45) and skipper Mayank Agarwal’s 84 (88b, 6x4, 1x6) ensured South Zone continued its merry run in the Deodhar Trophy as it beat East Zone quite easily by five wickets here at the Cricket Association of Pondicherry ground on Sunday.
With a fourth straight win, South also sealed its place in the final and is the only unbeaten side in the tournament.
Chasing a modest total of 230, Mayank and Rohan Kunnummal got the team off briskly before the former and B. Sai Sudharsan (53, 67b, 4x4, 1x6) stitched a match-winning 118-run stand for the second wicket.
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East’s fielders made things difficult for themselves with poor catching, with Mayank and Sai Sudharsan getting a reprieve early in their innings.
Mayank also got a chance early in his knock when he nicked one to the keeper off a no-ball from Mura Singh in the third over. The batter then hit the free-hit delivery for six and collected a few more boundaries off the pacer as he sprinted away in the PowerPlay.
But once the field spread out, the Karnataka opener used his experience to accumulate runs by rotating the strike easily to get to his third half-century of the tournament and set his side on a victory path.
Earlier, East Zone’s innings saw wild momentum swings, but a costly middle-order collapse meant the team had an uphill battle to stay alive in the contest as it folded out for 229 after electing to bat.
On an easy pitch for batting, the team got off well, with an 86-run second wicket stand between Virat Singh (49) and Subhransu Senapati (44). Sai Kishore gave South the breakthrough when he had Seanpati stumped before Washington Sundar had Virat Singh playing onto his stumps, trying to sneak a single on the off-side to get to his half-century. Suddenly, East went from 108 for 1 to 143 for eight in the space of 14 overs, with Sai Kishore and pacer V. Kaverappa scalping two more wickets each.
Akash Deep (44) and Mura Singh (33) gave some hope for their team when they wielded the long handle to good effect, adding 74 runs off 42 balls for the ninth wicket, slogging seven sixes between them to take East past 200 but it was not enough in the end.
The scores: East Zone 229 in 46 overs (Virat Singh 49, Subhransu Senapati 44, Akash Deep 44, Mura Singh 33, V. Koushik 3/37, R. Sai Kishore 3/45) lost to South Zone 230/5 in 44.2 overs (Mayank Agarwal 84, B. Sai Sudharsan 53, N. Jagadeesan 32).
North East Zone 164 in 49 overs (Ashish Thapa 31, Kamsha Yangfo 35, Aditya Sarvate 3/19) lost to Central Zone 165/2 in 33 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 85 n.o., Yash Dubey 72). Toss: Central Zone.
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