Published: Dec 01, 2014, 04:58 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 01, 2014, 05:20 PM (IST)
Dec 1, 2014
West Zone defeated South Zone by two wickets in the second semi-final of the Deodhar Trophy played at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Monday. Akshar Patel who remained unbeaten on 64 off just 38 balls finished the game only in the 47th over.
Patel also achieved his third List A fifty. Patel’s innings was studded with five boundaries and four sixes. At one point, West Zone lost the plot as they lost too many wickets but then Suryakumar Yadav and Akshar stood tall and came up with brilliant knocks which helped West Zone knock the defending champions.
Chasing a big total of 314, West Zone lost Smit Patel only in the sixth over of the innings as he was dismissed by Stuart Binny . Sheldon Jackson and Ambati Rayudu came together and built a strong partnership worth 91 runs. Rayudu and Jackson also went on to score their respective half-centuries before perishing in two consecutive overs. Then came Suryakumar Yadav who started with his unorthodox strokes and continued to add quick runs. The wickets kept leaking but Yadav kept on hitting big shots. Patel who came on to bat after the dismissal of Deepak Hooda joined Yadav and brought the run-rate down. Yadav was later dismissed by Binny as he tried to swipe a full toss away to the deep square-leg but was caught.
Earlier, South Zone got to 314 for 7 against West Zone in the second semi-final . Robin Uthappa scored 47 and Baba Aparajith made 56 at the top to help South Zone get a good start. Opening the innings, Uthappa and Mayank Agarwal added 104 for the first wicket after batting for 18 overs. The duo started sedately but managed to find boundaries at will. Mayank was the aggressor, but Uthappa was not too far behind. The partnership was looking ominous for West Zone, and it was only through the batsman’s error that they were able to break through. Uthappa tapped the ball to third man and took off for a non-existent run. He was run out for a good 47. Manish Pandey helped the who came out to No.4 helped South Zone go past 300-run mark.
Brief scores:
South Zone 314 for 7 for 5 in 50 overs (Robin Uthappa 47, Mayank Agarwal 86, Baba Aparajith 56, Manish Pandey 55; Dhawal Kulkarni 3 for 64) lost to West Zone 319 for 8 in 47.1 overs ( Surya Kumar Yadav 80; Stuart Binny 3 for 66) by 2 wickets.
