North crush hapless West to lift trophy

The two Sharmas, Joginder and Ishant, combined to wreck West Zone and hand the North Zone batsmen the easiest of roads to the Deodhar title, a journey they swiftly completed, albeit with a few speed bumps along the way.

On a track with considerable assistance for the bowlers, something neither captain expected, Joginder struck in his first two overs to herald the carnage that was to come. He had Parthiv Patel trapped in front with one that swung sharply from outside off with his fourth ball, before Kedar Devdhar managed to slap a short and wide delivery straight to backward point in his next over.

Rohit Sharma looked like he might play West out of the hole they found themselves in when he struck Joginder for two consecutive boundaries on the offside, but it was to prove a false dawn as Ishant got into the act, removing Wasim Jaffer with an outswinger that kissed the edge and then beating Rohit all ends up with one that angled in. Rohit went for the drive but played down the wrong line to lose his off stump. Ravindra Jadeja only lasted three deliveries before getting an inside edge to a back-of-a-length delivery from Ishant that crashed into his stumps.

With half the side gone for 46, West were in serious trouble and it looked like the match might be over before lunch when they slumped further to 57 for 7. However, Iqbal Abdulla provided a modicum of resistance to make 28 and help West reach three figures. Joginder and Ishant shared nine wickets between them, with the former picking up 6 for 40 and the latter 3 for 22. A target of 101 was never going to trouble North, and though they lost early wickets, Ravi Inder Singh's patient 43 ensured there was never really any doubt about who the winner was going to be on the day.