Manoj Tiwary’s 43-ball 75 included five sixes and five fours © ESPNcricinfo
Manoj Tiwary and Virat Singh’s unbroken 149-run partnership for the third wicket steered East Zone to an emphatic eight-wicket win against North Zone in Mumbai.
Put in to bat, North Zone’s top three amassed 85 run in 11.1 overs, with Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, and Unmukt Chand registering identical scores of 20.
Yuvraj Singh top scored with a 24-ball 38. However, his dismissal in the 14th over triggered a collapse, with North Zone losing three more wickets within the next 14 balls.
Manan Sharma (18) and Pradeep Sangwan (21) resuscitated the flagging North Zone innings, adding 29 runs for the eighth wicket.
Pragyan Ojha returned figures of 3 for 33 for East Zone, while medium-pacers Sayan Ghosh and Pritam Das bagged two wickets each. Amit Verma accounted for Yuvraj and Parvez Rasool, who was out hit-wicket.
Chasing 160, East Zone stuttered early on, losing Shreevats Goswami and Ishank Jaggi within the first two overs, before Tiwary (75 off 43) and Virat (74 off48) overhauled the target in 16.3 overs.
Mayank Agarwal’s 46-ball 70 guided South Zone to a five-wicket victory against West Zone at the Wankhede Stadium.
Having elected to bowl, South Zone spinners M Ashwin and Rahil Shah struck early to remove openers Sheldon Jackson (23) and Parthiv Patel (10) respectively.
Medium-pacer Vijay Shankar lent able support to the duo; the three returned combined figures of 6 for 79, while Chama Milind – despite going at 10.25 in his four overs – finished with three wickets.
Vishnu Vinod’s 20-ball 36 set the tone for South Zone’s 141-run chase, before Agarwal’s turbocharge – peppered with nine fours and two sixes – powered them to 136 in 16.4 overs. The Karnataka batsman shared a 52-run partnership – the highest in the match – with Dinesh Karthik (17), who came in after captain Shankar retired hurt in the seventh over with 62 for 1 on board.
Pavan Deshpande and Ashwin then closed out the game for South Zone with 14 balls to spare.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo