Deodhar Trophy 2014: Smash hit from down South

Along with No.3 Baba Aparajith, Agarwal added 28 for the second wicket. Agarwal fell to medium-pacer Ishwar Pandey and six overs later Pandey was bowled by Anureet Singh. South Zone were at 88 for 3 in 20.2 overs, with three of their best batsmen back in the pavilion, Central Zone’s medium-pacers would have felt like half the battle was won. Or so they thought.

Aparajith does not get spoken about as much as the Uthappas or the Pandeys, yet five First-Class hundreds and an equal number of fifties in 27 matches by the age of 20 points to steady if not a spectacular career. On Saturday, Aparajith made a well-crafted 113 off 105 balls to score his second List-A hundred. In Karun Nair, Aparajith found an able partner, and the duo added 124 runs for the fourth wicket to help South Zone post 296, a total Central fell short by 116 runs.

The match turned into a one-sided affair when Central were reduced to 4 for three — Jalaj Saxena, Jitesh Sharma and Ashok Menaria the causalities. Aparajith’s measured approach to batting and the controlled agression of Nair in the first-half of the match remained the talking points.

The Tamil Nadu batsman never looked under pressure though it wasn’t easy to bat considering the Central Zone pace attack comprised Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey, two bowlers who were part of India’s tour to England and Anureet Singh, a handy swing bowler. Ishwar was consistently pitching his out-swinger at a good length while Anureet was getting the ball to move in. Uthappa had nicked the ball to give Pankaj the first of his five wickets, while Pandey dismissed Agarwal with a full length delivery after teasing him with two out-swingers.

Pandey had no answer to Anureet’s in-swing delivery, which crashed into his middle-stump.

Aparajith took his time to get settled and really came into his own when the spinners began operating. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav paid the price for bowling short and they couldn’t prevent both Aparajith or Nair from rotating the strike.

Aparajith set the tone for the contest against the spinner when he stepped down the track and drove Chawla to the long-off boundary. Any hint of flight was countered with use of feet by Aparajith. Nair wasted no time in taking the fight to the spinners. He upset their line and rhythm by using the sweep and the reverse sweep. Kuldeep was expensive — 54 runs in seven overs — but Chawla fared worse with none for 61 in seven overs.

South Zone medium-pacer Vinay Kumar was in the thick of things in the early part of the Central Zone innings. Not only did he pitch the ball where he wanted but also managed to force the batsmen to commit mistakes or be in two minds.

He used his feet to kick the ball successfully towards the stumps and run-out opener Jalaj Saxena and an over later he dismissed Jitesh Sharma, caught in the slips by Manish Pandey. Ashok Menaria was trapped leg-before wicket by Vinay and with just four runs on the board and three wickets down, Central were in trouble. Without in-form Central Zone batsman Naman Ojha, on tour with the Indian team in Australia, there was not much to fall back upon after the early losses.

Opener Mukul Dagar scored 47 but was run out while Piyush Chawla scored a 27-ball 31. Arjit Gupta was flamboyant in his 66, which had five sixes and five fours. Gupta’s effort entertained but he was fighting a losing battle.

Brief scores: South Zone: 296 for 9 (Karun Nair 74, Baba Aparajith 113,  Pankaj Singh 5 for 45) beat Central Zone 180  (Mukul Dagar 47, Piyush Chawla 31, Vinay Kumar 3 for 8).