Led by Bengal bowlers Akash Deep, Manisankar Murasingh and Shahbaz Ahmed, the Central Zone kept the East Zone to just 207 runs, while opener Utkarsh Singh smashed 89 in 104 balls to help his team to a six-wicket victory in their round-robin league game in the Deodhar Trophy in Puducherry on Monday, July 22.
Left-arm spinner Shahbaz (3/30 in 10 overs), and pacers Manisankar Murasingh (3/29 in 10 overs) and pacer Akash (3/35 in 10 overs) got important breakthroughs throughout the match, despite a late attack from Rinku Singh, who has made the India men's squad for the Asian Games. bowl out Central for 207 in 50 overs.
Rinku scored 54 off 63 balls before being caught leg before by Murasingh, as the Central Zone got revenge for their Duleep Trophy loss by chasing down the target in 46.1 overs.
Left-handed opener Utkarsh Singh was the main aggressor for the Central Zone with a well-compiled 89 off 104 balls. He shared a 91-run opening stand with Abhimanyu Easwaran (38 off 55 balls), putting them on course for victory.
But it was the bowlers, who set it up nicely on a track where the ball occasionally stopped while coming on to the bat. It didn't help when one of the openers Aryan Juyal (39 not out) had to retire hurt during the first Powerplay before Shahbaz's wicket-to-wicket bowling didn't allow the Central batters to get away.
Even Rinku couldn't play big shots as he concentrated on singles and had only two sixes -- one each off left-arm spinner Avinav Choudhary and off-spinner Utkarsh. Once Mani Shankar Mura Singh (3 wickets) got Rinku, the last four wickets fell for only 31 runs.
In the other game, Skipper Priyank Panchal's unbeaten innings of 99 runs in 69 balls took the West Zone to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over the North East.
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