East Zone maintain winning streak

East Zone maintained their winning streak defeating North Zone by three wickets in the Vijay Hazare (Under-16) Trophy Tournament at the KL Saini Stadium in Jaipur on Friday. East Zone, who had already made sure of the trophy, registered their fourth straight win and ended with eight points. North Zone finished with four points from four matches.

East Zone, chasing a target of 228, were struggling at 37 for three in the tenth over. PJ Das (61 runs of 68 balls) was joined by A Nandi (59 runs of 81 balls) and they put on 84 runs for the fourth wicket off 17.3 overs. Then N Behera (31 runs of 50 balls) and Nandi added 55 runs off 9.3 overs for the fifth wicket. Towards the end, captain M Talukdar (32 not out of 26 balls) hastened East's victory, which came in the 47th over.

Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, North Zone made a good start with M Kholi (39 runs of 69 balls) and R Jaswal (32 runs of 34 balls) adding 75 for the first wicket in 14.2 overs. Then Rajan Singh (41 runs of 70 balls) and J Sharma (41 runs of 62 balls) put on 87 runs in 20.1 overs for the third wicket. But North Zone, plagued by four run outs, ended with a score of 227 for 9 in 50 overs.