Riyan Parag played the knock of his lifetime in domestic cricket as he rescued East Zone from batting collapse and smashed 11 sixes in his 131 run-knock against North Zone in Deodhar Trophy 2023 clash. Later, he took a four-fer as North Zone lost the match by a big margin of 88 runs at Cricket Association Puducherry Ground 3, Puducherry on July 28.
East Zone skipper Saurabh Tiwary won the toss and opted to field first. Harshit Rana struck twice with the new ball to remove Abhimanyu Easwaran and Virat Singh. Sandeep Sharma got rid of opener Utkarsh Singh Mayank Yadav then got the wickets of Subhranshu Senapati and Tiwary to reduce East Zone to 57/5.
Parag and 18-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra came to East Zone's rescue. They shared a 235-run partnership for the sixth wicket to turn the game upside down. Kushagra missed his half-century as 21-year-old pacer Mayank got the wicket of Kushagra in the 47th over. Kushagra scored 98 runs from 87 deliveries including eight fours and four sixes. In the same over, he got the wicket of Parag as well. The Guwahati-born batter scored 131 runs from 102 balls including five fours and 11 sixes.
In the last few overs, cameos from Shahbaz Ahmed, M Murasingh helped East Zone post a challenging total of 337/8 on the board. Sandeep turned out to be the most expensive of the lot conceding 89 runs from his quota of 10 overs. Leg-spinner Mayank Markande remained wicketless and conceded 73 runs from his eight overs.
In the run chase, Akash Deep got rid of Prabhsimran Singh in the second over. Abhishek Sharma and Himanshu Rana kept the required run rate in check. Parag broke the partnership in the 17th over with the wicket of Rana who scored 40 off 48 balls. Abhishek missed his half-century as well. The southpaw scored 44 runs from 52 balls.
Rana succumbed to pressure and lost his wicket to Shahbaz after scoring 27 runs. Mandeep Singh and Shubham Rohilla kept the run chase alive. But Mandeep got out right after getting to his half-century. Parag got his wicket in the 39th over. Nishant Sindhu failed to make a mark and got out for a single-digit score. Shahbaz got the wicket of big-hitter Harshit. Shubham Rohilla scored 41 runs from 34 balls. His stay at the crease was ended by Parag in the 43rd over. The unorthodox spinner and Shahbaz got one wicket each to mop up the tail as North Zone got all out for 249 and lost the match by 88 runs.
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