East Zone carry on their winning ways
East Zone recorded their second consecutive win in as many matches in the Deodhar Trophy
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
20-Jan-2004
East Zone 227 for 2 (Kiran Powar 79*, Gandhi 75*) beat North Zone 225 for 7 (Manhas 72, Sodhi 68, Sanyal 4-48) by 8 wickets
Scorecard
An unbroken 160-run stand between Devang Gandhi and Kiran Powar guided East Zone to a comfortable eight-wicket win with 12 overs to spare at Cuttack. After a solid 67-run partnership between Nikhil Haldipur and Mahendra Dhoni, both fell in quick succession to Sanjay Gill's medium-pace. But Powar carried on his runscoring spree and along with Gandhi, his captain, ensured that the target was reached without too many hassles. Sandip Sanyal (4 for 48), the medium-pacer, was instrumental in keeping North Zone down to a modest 225. North were struggling at 53 for 4, before a 134-run stand between Mithun Manhas and Reetinder Sodhi bailed them out. It proved too little as East romped home to their second consecutive win of the tournament.
Scorecard
An unbroken 160-run stand between Devang Gandhi and Kiran Powar guided East Zone to a comfortable eight-wicket win with 12 overs to spare at Cuttack. After a solid 67-run partnership between Nikhil Haldipur and Mahendra Dhoni, both fell in quick succession to Sanjay Gill's medium-pace. But Powar carried on his runscoring spree and along with Gandhi, his captain, ensured that the target was reached without too many hassles. Sandip Sanyal (4 for 48), the medium-pacer, was instrumental in keeping North Zone down to a modest 225. North were struggling at 53 for 4, before a 134-run stand between Mithun Manhas and Reetinder Sodhi bailed them out. It proved too little as East romped home to their second consecutive win of the tournament.
South Zone's last five batsmen were run-out as West Zone won a humdinger at the Keenan Stadium at Jamshedpur. Chasing 247, Sadagoppan Ramesh(42) and Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (47) got them off to a steady start. But both fell in quick succession and South lost their way in the middle overs. Sridharan Sriram anchored the innings with a 62-ball 54 but the running between the wickets was far from assured as West scraped home by two runs. Earlier in the day, Hrishikesh Kanitkar's 103 was the highlight of the West innings, and his important partnerships with Nishit Shetty (47) and Ranjit Khirid (34) ensured that they reached a competitive score.