Azhar’s return, Central to South’s hopes

MUMBAI, JANUARY 27: The 27th edition of the Deodhar Trophy limited overs cricket tournament has yet to provide a clear leader after three rounds. As many as four of the five competing teams are still in contention in the event which is played on a round-robin format. The contenders might whittle down when the fourth round gets under way on Friday.

Azharuddin’s return to the side after missing the encounter against East Zone owing to a knee injury, provides an edge to South in a contest between teams which are evenly matched. However, the Central lads’ impressive track record in the domestic circuit since the past couple of years should stand them in good stead against South which comprises of Test discards medium-pacer Dodda Ganesh and off-spinner Aashish Kapoor.

On the other hand Central, devoid of any big names, would be hoping to extend their display against last week which saw them upstage the fancied outfit by three wickets.

The teams (from):

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South Zone: Mohd Azharuddin (captain), Sridharan Sharath (vice-captain), J Arun Kumar, Sadagopan Mahesh, Sridharan Sriram, Thilak Naidu, Hemang Badani, Nanda Kishore, Rueben Paul, Aashish Kapoor, Dodda Ganesh, Thiru Kumaran, Srikumar Nair, Narendra Pal Singh, N Madhukar.

Central Zone: Gyanendra Pandey (captain), Gagan Khoda, Jyoti Yadav, Jai Prakash Yadav, Amay Khurasia, Devendra Bundela, Manoj Mudgal, Harvinder Singh Sodhi, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Murali Karthik, P Krishnakumar, Raja Ali, Abbas Ali, Preetam Gandhe, Anshu Jain.

Umpires: Subrata Banerjee and Subroto Porel.