An unblemished century by Devang Gandhi and his 170-run stand with opener M S Dhoni helped East Zone overwhelm former champions West by nine wickets in the opening match of the Deodhar Trophy here today.
Needing 174 for a win in 50 overs, Gandhi and Dhoni paced their innings in such a fashion that they withered the rival attack and coasted home with 15 overs to spare.
Brief scores: West: 173-9 in 50 overs (Vinayak Mane 43, Milap Mewada 24 not out). East: 174-1 in 35 overs (Devang Gandhi 109 not out).
South beat Central
Hyderabad: South Zone defeated Central Zone by seven wickets in the one-day Deodhar Trophy match at the Gymkhana grounds here today. Put into bat, Central scored 220 with skipper Amay Khurasia top-scoring with a rollicking 81. But South Zone surpassed the target with 10.1 overs to spare.
Brief scores: Central: 220 (Jyoti Yadav 33, Gagan Khoda 31, Amay Kaurasia 81, L Balaji 3 for 36, D Ganesh 3 for 40) lost to South: 221 for 3 (Arjun Yadav 96 not out, S Sriram 89 not out, Harvinder Singh 2 for 41).