Mohali: West Zone defeated East Zone by 108 runs in the first semi-finals of Deodhar trophy played at PCA Cricket Stadium, Mohali and booked their place in the finals where they will take on the winners of North Zone and Central Zone tie to be played at Dharamshala on March 18.
Winning the toss East Zone skipper decided to field first and his decision boomeranged as West Zone openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane put on 84 runs for the first wicket before Rahane was caught by Ishant Jaggi of the bowling of Laxmi Rattan Shukla for 36 for 42 balls studded with seven boundaries.
Parthiv Patel was the next to go when he was caught by Nadeem off A.A.Nandi after making a strokeful 69 off 76 balls studded with nine boundaries. Thereafter Kedar Jadhav and Cheteshwar Pujara accumulated 171 runs for the third wicket before Cheteshwar Pujara was castled by Shammi Ahmd. for 70 off 85 balls studded with six boundaries.
Kedar Jadhav, who was in an irresistible mood kept on plundering runs from one end. He treated both the spin and pace attack of East Zone with scant respect and sent all the bowlers on a leather hunt while hitting a sparkling ton (114) off 69 balls spiced with 17 well executed boundaries and two towering sixes. Suryakant Yadav also played a quick fire cameo of 21 runs off 11 balls inclusive of 2 boundaries and 3 lusty sixes.
West Zone finished the day at 342 for seven in 50 overs. Shammi Ahmd four for 62 and A.A. Nandi two for 56 were the main wicket takers for East zone.
Replying East Zone got off to a disastrous start as their opener D.S. Jadhav was trapped in front by medium pacer Unadkat for two with team’s total reading two. Ishant Jaggi was the next to go being castled by Iqbal Abdullah for 22 off 31 balls inclusive of four boundaries. Abdullah then struck two vital blows when he removed A.P.Majumdar (21) and Laxmi Rattan Shukla (03) in quick succession to reduce East Zone to 60 for 4 in 14 overs.
Saurab Tiwari kept one end up while Iqbal Abdullah was wreaking havoc at the other end. Saurabh Tiwari hammered an unbeaten century (112) off 95 balls hitting 16 glorious boundaries in the process. He put on 51 runs for the 8th wicket with S.J. Nadeem who scored 26 off 22 balls inclusive of 4 boundaries before being stumped by Parthiv Patel off Abdullah. Iqbal Abdullah bowled a nagging and probing length and returned the rich haul of 6 wickets for 32 runs. East Zone were bowled out for 234 in 40 overs.
Kedar Jadhav of West Zone was named man of the match.
Brief Score: West Zone: 342 for 7 in 50 overs (Parthiv Patel 69, A.Rahane 36, Cheteshwar Pujara 70, Kedar Jadhav 114, Surya Yadav 27, Shammi Ahmd 4 for 62, A.A. Nandi 2 for 56.)
East Zone: 234 for all out in 40 overs (Saurav Tiwari 112 not out, S.Nadeem 26, Ishant Jaggi 22, A.P.Majumdar 21, Iqbal Abdullah 6 for 32 , J.D. Unadkat 2 for 50.)
