West coast to six-wicket victory

West Zone 226 for 4 (Rahane 60, Nayar 49*) beat East Zone 225 (Saurabh Tiwary 65, Das 47) by 6 wickets
Scorecard

West Zone made easy work of a target of 226 against East Zone in Hyderabad, finishing the match within 40 overs to secure the bonus point. Wasim Jaffer began the chase with an aggressive knock, Ajinkya Rahane kept East at bay during the middle overs, before Abhishek Nayar sealed the deal with a 27-ball 49.

East, after opting to bat, started steadily with the openers Sourav Ganguly and Arindam Das adding 63 in 14 overs. Ganguly scored five fours in his 30 before falling to a tame pull and the rest of the top order failed to carry on after making starts. At 124 for 4, East were in need of a revival and it was Saurabh Tiwary who led the way with his second consecutive half-century, adding 65 for the fifth wicket with Laxmi Ratan Shukla. Tiwary, known for his aggressive batting, showed a lot of urgency in his 65, hitting four fours and two sixes.

East lost their way in the slog overs after Venugopal Rao struck twice to send back Shukla for 25 and then Wriddhiman Saha for 3 with the score reading 198 for 6. There was no late-innings surge from the lower order to boost the total as East settled for a middle-of-the-road target.

Jaffer began the chase in earnest, dealing almost entirely in boundaries. His 43-ball 48 contained ten fours and looked set for more before the seamer Shib Paul knocked back his middle stump. Parthiv Patel and Rahane added 57 for the third wicket to help West coast towards the target. When Rahane fell for 60, in the 31st over, West were well ahead of the required rate and an unbeaten stand of 69 for the fifth wicket between Nayar and Venugopal Rao finished things off in a hurry. Nayar smashed seven fours and a six in his knock.

East face Central Zone at the same venue on Sunday while West head to Visakhapatnam to face North Zone in three day's time.