Central Zone put up a sterling performance to trounce East Zone by 123 runs in their concluding Deodhar Trophy match in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Central rode on a consistent top-order display and a century stand between Ravi Kant Shukla (72 off 74 balls with 7 fours) and Piyush Chawla (60 off 77 balls with 7 fours) to post an imposing 302 for 8, the highest score in the tournament so far this year, after opting to bat first.
They then bowled out East for a meagre 179 in 38 overs with a combination of pace and spin in which Jai Prakash Yadav excelled once again by taking three wickets in four balls in his eighth over to end up with 3 for 33.
Rudra Pratap Singh claimed two of the first three wickets to fall in the East innings with a fiery spell in which he made the ball swing in sharply at good pace. He was given good support by Salabh Srivastava.
The opening left arm pace duo reduced East to 35 for three before they were revived by the 102-run partnership between Manoj Tiwari (50) and Rohan Gavaskar (40).
Praveen Kumar broke the stand by getting rid of Tiwary with a short ball that the batsman hooked to deep square leg.
Then Yadav grabbed the wickets of Gavaskar, East skipper Deep Dasgupta and Sourashish Lahiri in four balls to virtually finish the contest.
Central finished the league with eight points, including the bonus one they got today, while East had one taken away from their tally and have two with a match still to be played against North on Saturday.
Scorecard
Central Zone
P Kumar b Lahiri 44
S Joshi b Lahiri 36
S Khanolkar c Jhunjhunwala b Lahiri 25
T P Singh c Diwakar b Shukla 20
M Kaif c Saha b Diwakar 0
R Shukla run out 72
P Chawla c Saha b Diwakar 60
J P Yadav run out 21
R P Singh not out 8
M Kartik not out 1
Extras: (3lb, 9w, 3nb) 15
Total: (for 8 wickets in 50 overs) 302
Fall of wickets: 1-87, 2-88, 3-131, 4-132, 5-142, 6-245, 7-285, 8-292.
Bowling: R Bose 8-0-46-0; D Mohanty 7-0-55-0; S Lahiri 10-1-32-3; M Diwakar 9-1-69-2; L R Shukla 8-0-52-1; A Jhunjhunwala 6-0-30-0; M Tiwary 2-0-15-0.
East Zone
W Saha b Srivastava 6
P Aziz c Khanolkar b R P Singh 20
A Jhunjhunwala c Kartik b R P Singh 1
M Tiwari c Ravi Kant Shukla b Praveen Kumar 50
R Gavaskar c T P Singh b J P Yadav 40
L R Shukla c Joshi b Chawla 19
D Dasgupta b J P Yadav 0
S Lahiri lbw J P Yadav 0
M Diwakar c Joshi b Kartik 8
D Mohanty not out 1
R Bose c R P Singh b Kartik 6
Extras: (lb 3, wb 23, nb 2) 28
Total: (all out in 38 overs) 179
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-33, 3-35, 4-137, 5-144, 6-144, 7-145, 8-167, 9-167
Bowling: R P Singh 6-1-25-2, Srivastava 5-0-43-1, J P Yadav 10-1-33-3, Praveen Kumar 7-1-46-1, Kartik 7-1-14-2, Chawla 3-0-15-1.
