Rathore, Dani set new record

AGARTALA, JAN 22: Riding on the brilliance of a scintillating 127 by opener Ashu Dani and a superb 120 by skipper Vikram Rathore, reignin...

AGARTALA, JAN 22: Riding on the brilliance of a scintillating 127 by opener Ashu Dani and a superb 120 by skipper Vikram Rathore, reigning champion North Zone notched up a facile 66-run victory over star-studded West Zone in the Deodhar Trophy round robin league limited over match at the M B B Stadium here today.

Chasing a challenging target of 319, set by North Zone in the stipulated 50 overs, West Zone managed to score 252 for six in the stipulated 50 overs.

North Zone, which was defeated by underdogs Central Zone in Guwahati on Tuesday, opted to bat after winning the toss.

North openers Dani and Rathore put up a brilliant 232-run partnership to enable the title holder sit in a comfortable position. Their solid stand helped North pile up 318 losing six wickets in the stipulated fifty overs.

Dani’s innings was marked by nine boundaries and one towering six, while Rathore’s comprised eleven boundaries and four sixers.

Both North Zone players set a record partnership breaking the earlier record inthe Deodhar Trophy and in all first class cricket tournaments in the country.

North Zone will now take on South Zone at Jamshedpur on January 25 while West Zone will meet Central Zone at Sambalpur on January 25.

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North Zone: Ashu Dani b Kuruvilla 127, Vikram Rathore c Arothe b Mhambrey 120, Navjot Singh Sidhu c Dighe b Mhambrey 0, Pankaj Dharmani c Sugwekar b Kuruvilla 34, Ritender Sodhi c Dighe b Kuruvilla 0, Mithun Minhas (not out) 16, Harvinder Singh b Kulkarni 1, Rajiv Nair (not out) 4

Extras (lb7,w8, nb1) 16

Total (for six wickets in 50 overs) 318

Fall Of Wickets: 1-232, 2-232, 3-291, 4-295, 5-302, 6-306

Bowling: A Kuruvilla 10-0-54-3, P Mhambrey 10-1-43-2, N Kulkarni 10-0-57-1, Sugwekar 10-0-65-0, B Mehta 4-0-41-0, T Arothe 6-0-51-0.

West Zone:

C Williams c Dani b Bhandari 8, Manoj Joglekar c Rathore b Singh 3, Shantanu Sugwekar c Sharma b Sodhi 67, Vinod Kambli c Singh b Bhandari 0, Prakash Bhatt c Sodhi b Sharma 32, Sameer Dighe c Singh b Bhandari 79,Tushar Arothe (not out) 38, P Mehta (not out) 3

Extras (b1, lb7, nb5, w9) 22

Total (for six wkts in 50 overs) 252

Fall Of Wickets: 1-15, 2-15, 3-15, 4-91, 5-171, 6-236

Bowling: H Singh 7-0-24-1, A Bhandari 10-0-64-3, S Sharma 10-1-50-1, R Singh (Jr) 8-0-33-0, R S Sodhi 10-0-38-1, Mithun Minhas 5-0-30-0, Rajiv Nair 1-0-5-0.

East Zone vanquished

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RANCHI: A sparkling unbeaten knock of 114 by Gagan Khoda steered Central Zone to a nine-wicket victory over East Zone in a league match of the Deodhar Trophy tournament at the Birsa Stadium here today.

The Central Zone willow wielders, fresh from their win over reigning champions North Zone at Rourkela on Tuesday, coasted to victory scoring 207 for the loss of just one wicket in 44.3 overs after East Zone were bundled out for 203 in 47.5 overs.

Khoda, adjudged man of the match, played an impressive 130-ball knock studded with 12 boundaries and a huge six.

Earlier, East Zone were skittled out for 203 after their skipperUtpal Chatterjee won the toss and elected to bat.

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Southpaw Rohan Gavaskar top scored for the hosts with 59 off 83 balls till he was run out by an accurate throw from central zone skipper Gyanendra Pandey with the team total reading 151.

Central Zone’s Murli Kartik maintained a disciplined line and length, returning figures of 10-1-23-2.

Brief Scores

East Zone 203 in 47.5 overs (R Gavaskar 59; M Kartik 2-23).

Central Zone 207-1 in 44.3 overs (G Khoda 114 not out).