North Zone's triumph no surprise

North Zone's triumph in the Duleep Trophy was not exactly a surprise; what was surprising however was the ease with which they wrapped up the title with a round of matches still to be played. They were expected to be given a tough fight by West Zone and South Zone. But with the challenge from these sides fading away - chiefly because the stars chose to stay away from most of the games - North Zone had things their own way in finishing way ahead of the competition.

North Zone wrapping up the title with a round to spare was not the only surprise. The fact that South Zone finished last with just eight points was possibly the bigger surprise. They were handicapped the most by the number of leading players not playing or not available. However, even after taking this factor into consideration, there was no doubt that South Zone's show was a major disappointment. West Zone, the third fancied team in the competition finished third with 17 points. Central Zone exceeded expectations in finishing runners-up with 19 points while East Zone took the fourth spot with 13 points.

There is little doubt that the Duleep Trophy tournament should be played in a league format. After being held on a knock out basis for over 30 years, the league format was tried out for three successive years from 1993-94. Then for four years after that, it was back to the knock-out format. This year the board reverted to the league format and it was a success. This is ideal for a premier competition like the Duleep Trophy, since it gives more opportunity to players to exhibit their talent and skill. The selectors can certainly pick up valuable points only if they watch the players over an extended period. And some of the cricketers did in fact make it to the list of probables for the series against Australia based largely on their performances in the month long competition.

Thankfully, this year's tournament was not one in which the bat dominated to an alarming degree. That the bat still held sway over the ball was perhaps not unexpected. But it certainly was not to the level it has been in the past. The fact that four of the ten matches ended in results is clear proof of this. Three of these were over in three days.

But the bat still had more than an edge in the tournament and no team symbolized this more than North Zone. Indeed, batting was their main strength and this more than anything else, saw them retain the trophy. They won one match and in the three others, took first innings points thanks largely to their batsmen running up huge scores. Epitomizing this was Dinesh Mongia. The Punjab left hander hit two double hundreds in piling up 532 runs. Other main run getters were Yuvraj Singh (346) and Virender Shewag (329), Vikram Rathour (374) and Akash Chopra (298). Chopra in fact got centuries in each innings against South Zone.

Even Central Zone had to depend mainly on their batting to get the runner-up spot. Jai P Yadav (351), Gagan Khoda (341) and Md Kaif (332) were the main run getters. Yere Goud, who played only two innings scored 107 not out and 85 for an average of 192. Khoda and Kaif too had an average of 100 plus with the former taking the individual honours of the competition with an unbeaten 300 against South Zone.

The difference that one top player can make to a side was clearly proved by Sachin Tendulkar. Before he came on the scene to play the last match, West Zone were struggling with nine points from three matches. They had conceded first innings points in all these games. Then from the last encounter, in which Tendulkar led the side, West Zone got eight points with a victory in three days against East Zone. The Indian batting megastar led from the front with a breathtaking 199 off 214 balls. Jacob Martin carried West Zone's fortunes on his shoulders in the initial stages and he was rewarded with 313 runs in the competition. West Zone were handicapped by the fact that Ajit Agarkar and Vinod Kambli played only two matches each and Zaheer Khan three.

If there was one team which depended more on their bowling than their batting it was East Zone. Skipper Shiv Sundar Das headed both the aggregates (204) and the averages (29.14) and the figures tell their own tale. Rohan Gavaskar was their only century maker.

South Zone were hit hardest by the star players not being available. Javagal Srinath, Rahul Dravid, Sadagoppan Ramesh and Venkatesh Prasad all played two matches each while Robin Singh played in only one. There was generally a lot of chopping and changing and only Sunil Joshi, VVS Laxman, Aashish Kapoor, Sridharan Sriram and VST Naidu played in all four matches. Not having a settled look cost South Zone dearly and like East Zone, they too suffered two defeats. Laxman got a hundred and a double hundred in the first two matches on his way to a tally of 478 runs but failed in the next two, both of which South lost. Dravid came good in the limited opportunities he had while Sriram managed to erase a string of failures with a marathon 150 in the final game against Central.

If batsmen still held the advantage, bowlers too had their day. North Zone's left arm medium pacer Ashish Nehra took 14 wickets in three matches at 19.78 apiece, while West Zone's leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule took 15 in four matches. This included a hat-trick against East Zone, a feat that had not been achieved in the Duleep Trophy since 1978-79. East Zone's promising left arm spinner Sukhbinder Singh finished with 13 wickets. But pride of place easily went to Debasish Mohanty. The 24-year-old Orissa medium pacer, striving hard to make a comeback into the Indian side, captured 23 wickets in three matches at the remarkable average of 11.95. This of course included the first all ten wicket haul in the 40-year-old competition's history.