Dharamsala: A fiery spell of six for 49 by Parvinder Awana, some superb batting display by P Dogra (71) Yashpal Singh (83) and a cameo by Rajat Bhatia (40 of 30 balls) were instrumental in North Zone’s victory over Central Zone by 22 runs in the semi-final of Deodhar Trophy at HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday. North Zone will now play West Zone in the final on Monday.
Put in bat by Central Zone, who won the toss, North Zone had a disastrous start as they lost Nitin Saini in the very first over for a naught and Shikhar Dhawan too was back to the pavilion by the end of seventh over with scoreboard still under 30. However, Mandeep Singh (53) combined well with Paras Dogra (71) to add 104 runs for the third wicket before Mandeep was caught by Patel off Jalaj S Saxena. Paras was then joined by Yashpal Singh (83) and the duo added 31 for the fourth wicket until Paras fell to UT Yadav. Thereafter Rajat Bhatia took the crease and played a superb cameo of 40 runs of 30 balls. He added 79 runs for the fifth wicket with Yashpal and that played a pivotal role in North finishing at 289/8.
International star Umesh Yadav had an off-day as he went for 68 runs off his 10 overs, while Shailendra Gehlot was the pick of the Central bowlers taking three for 59.
In reply, Central tried hard to reach the target but could manage only 267/9. Mohammad Kaif (60), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (51) and Ashok Menaria (51) scored half centuries, but other batsmen in the team failed to deliver.
Parvinder (6/49) came up with some hostile bowling to unsettle most of the rival batsmen. Rishi Dhawan (2/52) also scalped two wickets for North. However, Harbhajan Singh had an off day conceding 51 runs in nine overs.
Brief scores:
North Zone 289 for 8 (Yashpal 83, Dogra 71; Gehlot 3/59) beat Central Zone 267 for 9 (Kaif 60, Menaria 51; Awana 6/49) by 22 runs
