da apostebet： After two consecutive victories, North Zone were brought down to earthwhen Central Zone defeated them by three wickets in the Deodhar Trophymatch at Pune on Tuesday
Partab Ramchand25-Jan-2000After two consecutive victories, North Zone were brought down to earthwhen Central Zone defeated them by three wickets in the Deodhar Trophymatch at Pune on Tuesday.North Zone’s problems lay with their batting. When they started offlosing half the side with only 74 runs on the board, it was alwaysgoing to be an uphill task for them to come back into the match. HSSodhi rocked them by dismissing Vijay Dahiya (8) and Ajay Jadeja (3)by the eleventh over. Jai P Yadav then took the wickets of PankajDharmani (12) and Virendra Shewag (0) in the same over. And with leftarm spinner Kartik Murali forcing the North Zone captain VikramRathour into giving him a return catch, North Zone were down in thedumps. Rathour played the sheet anchor role in hitting 37 off 68 ballswith six hits to the ropes.It was left to the latter half to bolster North Zone’s total. First DMongia (23) and M Minhas added 49 runs for the sixth wicket off 12.3overs. The recovery process was maintained with Minhas and RahulSanghvi (44 not out) increasing the score by 79 runs off 15.5 oversduring a seventh wicket association. Minhas then fell for a gallant72, for which he faced 85 balls and hit four fours and a six. As if tomock the top order, Sanghvi and Amit Bhandari then added 34 runs forthe eighth wicket off just three overs. Bhandari was run out for 18off only 10 balls, hitting two fours and a six. Sanghvi faced 53 ballsand hit four of them to the fence. North Zone were finally able to geta highly respectable 237 for eight off 50 overs.Openers Gagan Khoda (71) and Jyoti P Yadav (30) got Central Zone offto a good start by putting on 77 runs off 16 overs. A second wicketstand of 50 runs off 13.3 overs between Khoda and Jai P Yadav (33) putCentral Zone in a comfortable position. Khoda who played an attackinginnings which lasted 84 balls, hit eleven fours. After he was secondout at 127 in the 30th over, wickets fell at regular intervals thanksto some incisive bowling by Robin Singh. But D Bundela stood firm atone end. He and P Krishnakumar (19) shared a vital seventh wicketpartnership of 35 runs off four overs and Central Zone were finallyhome with 2.1 overs to spare. Bundela remained unbeaten with avaluable 45. He faced 53 balls and hit five fours. Robin Singh’s finespell of four for 45 went in vain. This was Central Zone’s first winin two games.