East Zone, powered by Riyan Parag’s century and Manisankar Murasingh’s fifer, defeated West Zone by 157 runs in the fifth-round match - a virtual semifinal - of the Deodhar Trophy, at CAP 2 ground on Tuesday to join South Zone in the summit clash.
Murasingh ran through the top-order in his opening spell to completely push West on the backfoot and assume control.
He got good support from the rest of the bowlers to finish the game in 34 overs as West, chasing the target of 320, got bowled out for 162.
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Opting to bat, East openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Utkarsh Singh started on a solid note with backfoot play. They found boundaries at regular intervals while also riding a bit of luck, thanks to two dropped catches by wicketkeeper Harvik Desai.
However, Easwaran’s stay was cut short by Arzan Nagwaswalla, who had him caught behind with a bouncer.
Virat Singh, who came in at number three, hit a cut for four early in his 52-ball 42. His 64-run stand with Utkarsh gave East the upper hand before the West spinners began drying up the runs.
Utkarsh got out on 50, and within the next 10 overs, East lost three more wickets - Virat, Rishav Das, and skipper Saurabh Tiwary.
Riyan Parag, who walked at six, began with soft backfoot punches. He, along with Kumar Kushagra, kept the scoreboard ticking singles and the occasional double before breaking loose against Sarfaraz Khan in the 39th over.
Parag scored his first boundary after facing 26 balls. Kushagra, too, began coming down the track to find quick runs and smacked four sixes as he ended up scoring 53 off 47 balls.
In no time, East cruised past the 300-run mark, where, at one time, 250 looked par on a hot but windy day.
Parag, unbeaten on 102, reached triple digits in 66 balls with the help of six fours and five sixes.
Shams Mulani was the pick of the bowlers for West, getting 3/45 in his 10 overs as East finished at 319/7.
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In reply, Murasingh got early movement with the new ball and ended up sending four batters back in the hut in his first spell. He completed the fifer by getting Nagwaswalla caught during his second spell.
For West, Harvik had a new opening partner in Samarth Vyas since Priyank Panchal hurt his ankle while fielding.
While Harvik was scoring with ease, the others struggled to survive on a pitch with decreasing pace and bounce. Atit Sheth and Harvik added 49 runs for the seventh wicket. Once Utkarsh got Atit out in 28th over, it was just a matter of time before East finished off the game.
Panchal did come to bat at number 11 to help Harvik get his hundred. However, the latter got out on 92, caught at deep midwicket while trying to hit a six.
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