West Zone pulled off a thrilling two-wicket win over South Zone to enter the Deodhar Trophy final to be played on Wednesday, the 3rd of December at the Wankhede Stadium. Chasing the 315-run target, WZ were reeling on 163/5 but, Suryakumar Yadav scored a blistering 80 off 56 to keep the team in the fray. And Axar Patel who was involved in a 36-ball 70-run partnership with the middle-order batsman continued to clobber the opposition with gusto after the stand ended. Remaining unbeaten on 64 (38), Axar took the team to victory with Shardul Thakur.
Chasing the mountainous total, West Zone opener Smit departed handing a catch to short point for 11. Sheldon Jackson who had survived a run-out chance while on 11 as Aparajith missed the stumps, went on to score a half-century before a one-handed catch by Sanju Samson at mid-off ended the second-wicket partnership for 91. Meanwhile at the other hand, Rayudu had taken on the South Zone attack and raced to his fifty with a six before the opener. In the following over Vinay ended Rayudu’s stay in the middle by claiming the top-order bat lbw for 54.
At 119/3, Suryakumar Yadav joined Kedar Jadhav in an effort to scale the target. And while on nine, the Mumbai batsman hit it back to Ashish Reddy who dropped the catch. Having added two runs to his tally, Yadav was given another life by Agarwal at backward point. 40 runs later, Jadhav departed handing a catch to Pandey at short cover off Darshan Misal. And Yusuf Pathan who had replaced him hit a Vinay Kumar delivery to Pandey at mid-wicket.
West Zone were struggling on 163/5 when Hooda made his way to the middle and was stumped off Pandey for one off a wide going down the leg side. Despite a scratchy start, Yadav held up one end and in the process reached his fifty with a six off Reddy behind square-leg. Playing in his backyard, Yadav took on the SZ bowlers with Axar. With some firm hitting the pair kept West Zone in the reckoning.
However, with 71 runs still needed from 67 balls, Yadav departed for 80 sweeping Binny only to be caught by Aparajith near the fence after slamming the previous full toss for six. With a game changing partnership the pair had injected new life into the game. Axar continued to clobber the bowling and smashed Vinay for a six and four while collecting 13 from his over and in the next hit Binny for another six and boundary as they continued to close in on the target. However, Kulkarni looking for the big hit and was caught at long-on off Binny for naught.
With 46 required off 54, Thakur joined Axar in the middle. The youngster held his nerve and reached his fifty off 30 balls with a boundary off Aparajith as he wrested the advantage from South Zone to keep the match hanging in balance. Thakur too joined in the fireworks with a six over Reddy over long-off and followed it with two boundaries to bring the team within eight runs of the target. He sent the next ball sailing over the square-leg region. With two runs needed, Axar finished the game with a six over Aparajith’s head.
Earlier, Robin Uthappa and Agarwal got South Zone off to a good start with a century stand. The pair batted steadily to lay a foundation and set-up the game. With a boundary in every over for the first five overs they settled into a steady rhythm and looked set for bigger knocks until a direct hit by Shardul Thakur from third man sent Uthappa back.
SZ’s centurion of the first game, Aparajith then joined Agarwal to pluck runs off the WZ bowlers who were struggling to create opportunities. With singles and twos besides the odd boundary, the pair took the team to 181 before the opener departed. Agarwal coming down the track to Deepak Hooda was stumped by Smit Patel off a wide delivery.
26 runs later, Aparajith looking to capitalise on the batting powerplay perished taking the aerial route. Looking to smack a short delivery from Dhawal Kulkarni he was caught at long-on. Karun Nair who then joined Pandey in the middle saw the team through the rest of the powerplay as the side finished with 29 for the loss of one wicket in the five-over duration.
Scoring at a brisk pace the Pandey-Nair duo milked 62 off 57 balls until the latter was sent back. Looking to pull another short delivery from Kulkarni, Nair was caught at deep mid-wicket by Ambati Rayudu to end the flourishing stand.
At 269/4 with 25 balls remaining in the innings, Stuart Binny then joined in gleaning runs off the opposition. In the 47th over, while Binny smacked Thakur to the fence, Pandey added two more boundaries in the point region as they claimed 16 runs from it. In the following over, Pandey brought up his half-century with a boundary behind square-leg off Axar Patel. While Binny hit Axar for four at square-leg, he hit Kulkarni through covers in the following over. However, later in the over his attempt to pull ended in a mishit sending the ball high in the air and Kulkarni took the catch.
In the last over, Pandey was caught by Kedar Jadhav at long-on for 55 while looking to clear the ropes off DJ Muthuswamy. And Sanju Samson and Vinay added seven off the remaining four balls before the youngster was run-out while looking to add a second run off the last ball.
By: BCCI
