On the opening day of the 2023 Deodhar Trophy, Nitish Rana-led North Zone suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mayank Agarwal-led South Zone at the Cricket Association Puducherry Siechem Ground on July 24 (Monday). Led by Vidhwath Kaverappa's exceptional spell with the bowl, South Zone bundled out Nitish Rana & Co. for just 60 runs and registered a victory by a huge margin of 185 runs (VJD method).
South Zone posted a total of 303/8 in 50 overs after batting first. Rohan Kunnummal and captain Agarwal gave their team a solid start by registering a partnership of 117 runs for the opening wicket. Kunnummal scored 70 runs off 61 balls with the help of eight fours and three sixes while Agarwal smacked 64 runs off 68 balls with the help of seven fours.
Narayan Jagadeesan, who walked out to bat at No.4, top-scored for South Zone. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 72 runs off 66 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes.
North Zone used eight bowlers with Rishi Dhawan and Mayank Markande each bagging two wickets. Sandeep Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Mayank Dagar and Rana chipped in with a wicket each.
In reply, North Zone batters put on a shambolic display. Only two batters were able to breach the 10-run mark while nine willow-wielders were dismissed before they could even score 10 runs. As a result, Rana's side fizzled out for an embarrassing score of 60 runs.
Kaverappa was the star of the show with the ball for South Zone. The right-arm pacer bagged five wickets in his spell of six overs and conceded just 17 runs. Vijaykumar Vyshak chipped in with two wickets while Vasuki Koushik, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar bagged a wicket each.
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