North seal Duleep Trophy at South’s expense

North, with 18 points, are at least assured of five points from this match taking them to 23.

South Zone, the only team that had a mathematical chance of overhauling North, were today defeated by East Zone in Agartala rendering the final round of matches inconsequential. Opener J P Yadav and his overnight partner and skipper Amay Khurasia resumed tentatively. Khurasia survived two chances, but his exuberance in scoring on every delivery cost him his wicket.

Khurasia added just six runs to his last evening’s score to be out for 51, brilliantly caught at long-on by Dinesh Mongia off Harbhajan Singh in the third over of the day. J P Yadav gelled well with Uttar Pradesh batsman Mohd Kaif to add 103 runs for the third wicket. Yadav was next to go when Jammu and Kashmir’s Surinder Singh caught him at widish mid-wicket off Sanghvi. He made 78 off 107 balls hitting 12 boundaries and a six.

Kaif, aiming to get into the national probables, hit some breathtaking shots and two lusty hits over the ropes to Harbhajan Singh to catch national selectors’ attention. Kaif made 61 with six fours and two sixes before Sanghvi induced him to edge to Mongia at mid-on.

Sanghvi then had Raja Ali (29) and Rahul Kanwat (17).

Middle-order bat Yere Goud was batting on 67 with 10 fours fighting a lone battle to save Central from an inevitable follow-on on the fourth and final day at Ferozshah Kotla here.

Central Zone lost Devender Bundela (11), Kanwat (17) and Abhay Sharma (14) cheaply before Murli Kartik (batting 3) saw off the third day in company of Goud.

East Zone win
Agartala: Brilliant batting by skipper Shiv Sundar Das (79 off 183 balls) and Deep Dasgupta (32) helped East Zone to defeat fancied South Zone by four wickets on the penultimate day of the Duleep Trophy league match at the MBB Stadium here today.

East Zone earned 13 points from three matches while South Zone gained eight points from equal number of matches. Following this victory, East Zone have come back into reckoning.

Needing 96 runs to win with eight wickets in hand, East resumed their play at 71 for two. The hosts team scored 170 losing six wickets in the second innings and won the match within five minutes after the lunch.

Brief scores: South: 113 and 177. East: 124 and 170 for 6 (Shiv Sundar Das 79, Deep Dasgupta not out 32, Sukhvinder Singh not out 22, Srinath 2 for 58, Venkatesh Prasad 3 for 44).

West-East tie shifted
Mumbai: The Duleep Trophy match between West and East, which was to be held at Rajkot from February 1 to 4, has now been shifted to Nehru Stadium in Pune. The BCCI has been forced to shift the match after the devastation caused by yesterday’s earthquake.

Scoreboard
North zone: 690-8 decl.
Central Zone (1st Innings): J P Yadav c S Singh b Sanghvi 78; Pagnis c Dahiya b Surinder 8; Khurasia c Mongia b Harbhajan 51; M Kaif c Mongia b Sanghvi 61; R Ali c Nayyar b Sanghvi 29; Goud batting 67; Bundela b Harbhajan 11; Kanwat lbw Sehwag 17; Abhay Sharma lbw Sanghvi 14; Kartik batting 3; Extras (b-6, lb-4, nb-21): 31; Total (for 8 wkts): 370
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-94, 3-197, 4-224, 5-253, 6-288, 7-319, 8-358.
Bowling: Nehra 20-1-84-0, Surinder Singh 11-3-52-1, Harbhajan Singh 30-2-123-2, Rahul Sanghvi 25-9-47-4, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 4-1-17-0, Virender Sehwag 11-3-36-1, Yuvraj Singh 2-1-1-0.