Mithun Manhas turned out to be the unlikely hero as he spun North Zone to a 59-run victory over East Zone in the Duleep Trophy cricket final at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Monday.
Manhas grabbed three wickets for 15 runs with his part time off-spinners to bundle out East Zone for 349 on the fifth and final day and help North claim the zonal tournament for a record 16th time.
Amit Bhandari, who toiled hard but was unlucky for a major part of the match, chipped in with three wickets for 71 runs as he polished off East's tail.
Needing 196 runs with seven wickets in hand at the start of the day, East were within reach of what would have been their maiden title. But they were undone by the loss of three wickets in the space of 20 runs before lunch.
When first innings centurion Kiran Powar (97) dug out a simple catch to Dinesh Mongia at cover in the third over after the break, the trophy had slipped out of East's hands.
Powar missed out on century in each innings after being dismissed for 97, but his story was very much that of his team as well.
In a match that saw the pendulum swing from one side to the other constantly, East had good performances from more than one player but lost because they did not apply themselves at crucial moments.
The wicket of Devang Gandhi, who came in at the fall of night-watchman Sourashish Lahiri, was a big blow to the visitors' hopes.
The captain looked edgy from the first ball he faced and his wild heave off Dinesh Mongia, to under edge a good catch to wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra, was only in keeping with his form of the day.
Manhas then struck his first blow when he broke through the defence of Shiv Sunder Das, who came in at number seven after nursing a tear in his calf muscle during North's second innings, off the very first ball.
Those two wickets, half an hour from lunch, changed the complexion of the game, that seemed to be heading towards a triumph for East when the overnight pair of Powar and Lahiri blunted the seamers.
The two played with abundant confidence and to a plan, working the ball through the gaps. Lahiri, with 27 from 85 balls, was beginning to upset North's plans, and his six off Mongia over midwicket was the highpoint of East's dominance.
Sarandeep Singh (2-71) then provided the crucial breakthrough when he induced a bat-pad catch from Lahiri to end the 64-run association for the fourth wicket.
After Powar's dismissal, however, East's batting disintegrated rapidly. Utpal Chatterjee, who had rolled his arms to bring the team back into the match, was gone for a duck.
And although Laxmi Ratan Shukla is known for lusty hitting, fortune was not in his favour today. Debasish Mohanty provided some pyrotechniques but those were the sparks of a dying lamp.
Gandhi termed the loss "pretty disappointing". He said the batting of Yuvraj Singh, who scored century in each innings for North, was the difference between the two teams.
"We lost in our batting (on the final day). Kiran Powar batted well but the main difference between the two teams was Yuvraj Singh," he said.
"The track, I would say, was not easy to bat on. They were also continuing with the old ball (for a while)," said the skipper.
East have had a fantastic season, winning the Deodhar Trophy, the one-day championship, and reaching the Duleep Trophy final.
Gandhi said despite the loss, there are positives to be taken from the match.
"We played as a team; youngsters came up with good performances, and it has not been a case of just one or two players performing."
Winning captain Mongia was delighted when told that North had won the title more times than any other team, surpassing West's 15 wins.
North's last title was in 2001-02.
Mongia said he was confident although his team was on the defensive going into the final day.
"It was always a matter of one wicket. We had only one aim, that of taking the remaining seven wickets," he said.
"They began well, with overnight batsman Lahiri playing well in the morning, but we knew that one wicket would change things."
On the poor fielding by his team, which almost cost them the title, Mongia said it is part and parcel of the game.
"It happens in cricket. We all know that Yuvraj is one of the best fielders in the country. But there is nothing wrong if he drops a few catches.
"It is the same with batting also. It is not often that all the five-six players do well, most times only two or three do the scoring. It is up to the captain to motivate the players to pick themselves up," he said.
Scoreboard
North Zone (1st innings): 330
East Zone (1st innings): 322
North (2nd innings): 400
East Zone (2nd innings):
A Das lbw Sarandeep 35
M S Dhoni c Yuvraj b Gagandeep 60
K Powar c Mongia b Manhas 97
R Gavaskar c Ratra b Bhandari 49
S Lahiri c Mongia b Sarandeep 27
D Gandhi c Ratra b Mongia 9
S S Das b Manhas 0
L R Shukla c Nehra b Bhandari 17
U Chatterjee c Gagandeep b Manhas 0
D Mohanty c Manhas b Bhandari 26
S S Paul not out 0
Extras: (b-6, lb-9, nb-14) 29
Total: (all out in 106.5 overs) 349
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-116, 3-200, 4-264, 5-284, 6-285, 7-311, 8-313, 9-335.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 15-3-44-0, Amit Bhandari 18.5-1-71-3, Joginder Sharma 13-1-60-0, Gagandeep Singh 10-1-44-1, Sarandeep Singh 27-1-71-2, Dinesh Mongia 13-3-29-1, Mithun Manhas 10-3-15-3.
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