By India Today Sports Desk: Shivam Dube and Mayank Agarwal starred within the Deodhar Trophy on Sunday, 30 July as South Zone and West Zone defeated East and North respectively. With the win South Zone continued their dominant run on the prime of the group, whereas West Zone matched East Zone in factors (12) from equal variety of matches (4).
On Sunday, July thirtieth, South Zone continued their undefeated streak within the Deodhar Trophy with a convincing five-wicket victory over East Zone. The round-robin match was highlighted by spectacular half-centuries from Mayank Agarwal and Sai Sudharsan.
Agarwal, who scored 84 runs, and Sudharsan, who contributed 53, fashioned a formidable second-wicket partnership that yielded 118 runs. Their efficiency, which included ten fours and two sixes, was instrumental in South Zone’s profitable chase of 230 runs in simply 44.2 overs.
Agarwal’s 88-ball innings was punctuated by six fours and a six, whereas Sudharsan hit 4 boundaries and a six in his 57-ball stint. Following their dismissal, N Jagadeesan (32) and Rohit Rayudu (24) maintained the momentum of the chase.
South Zone’s victory solidified their place on the prime of the factors desk with 4 wins from as many matches. In distinction, East Zone, regardless of having three wins from 4 matches, remained in second place.
The triumph was a results of a collective effort from South Zone’s bowlers. The seam trio of V Koushik, Vidhwath Kaverappa, and Vijaykumar Vyshak shared six wickets, whereas spinners Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar took 4 wickets.
East Zone, who selected to bat first, bought off to a promising begin with Virat Singh and Subhranshu Senapati scoring 49 and 44 runs respectively. However, their innings collapsed after their dismissal, resulting in common lack of wickets. Akash Deep and Mukhtar Hussain then stepped up, including 44 and 33 runs respectively to take East Zone to a good complete.
WEST vs NORTH
West Zone’s match was a lot nearer on the day. Chasing 260 runs, West Zone suffered a mini-collapse with their center order getting worn out for 122 runs. Chennai Super Kings all-rounder Shivam Dube and Kathan Patel mixed to rescue the innings and added 138 runs between them to launch an aggressive assault on the North Zone bowlers.
Dube hit 5 sixes and three boundaries, whereas Patel scored 6 boundaries, enjoying the help function. Dube (83 off 78) was the star of the present as West chased down the goal in 48.5 overs to stay within the hunt for the finals.
Earlier within the innings, North had been guided by Nitish and Himanshu Rana’s half centuries to a good complete of 259 runs. Barring these two and Shubham Rohilla (56 off 52) no one turned up within the batting order. Spinner Shams Mulani was the choose of the bowlers from West Zone, with 3 wickets to his title.
