JAIPUR: South Zone made it a no-contest in just the first 13 overs, reducing Central Zone, which was chasing South's mammoth 327 for four, to 40 for five. Thereafter, the only point of interest was whether South would manage a bonus point from this Deodhar Trophy league encounter. To collect a bonus point, South needed to restrict a depleted Central to 261 or less.

Eventually, after India under-19 captain and debutant Ravi Kant Shukla (94 not out, 7x4, 2x6) shared an entertaining 128-run sixth-wicket stand with Abbas Ali (73, 6x4, 2x6), South bowled out Central for 247 and won by 80 runs. South now has nine points and plays North at Udaipur on Friday, while Central faces East here.

The early madness from the Central batsmen made things easy for South. Instead of seeing off the new-ball without much damage, the Central top-order tried too much too soon and paid the penalty.

What drove Central to adopt some desperate measures from the very start was the way in which centurions S. Vidyut (158) and Y. Venugopala Rao (103 not out) raised 233 runs for the second wicket in just 234 deliveries and set up South's huge total.

Surprise decision

After being surprisingly put in on a perfect batting strip by Central's skipper J.P. Yadav, South lost opener Robin Uthappa cheaply but the early setback was soon forgotten. Vidyut went on to hit two sixes and 16 boundaries in his delightful 141-ball knock. Vidyut's maiden century in the championship and third in one-dayers, dominated the partnership.

In fact, Vidyut looked set for a double hundred when he reached his 150 in the 41st over but in the next over, he was stumped. Vidyut later admitted that on reaching 150 he was indeed eyeing 200. "I wanted to do it by scoring at least one boundary in every over. I understand that I indeed missed a really big one today," said the well-mannered cricketer from Chennai.

Vidyut's rampage pushed Venugopala's unbeaten century to the background. But the skipper played his role to perfection and hit two sixes and seven boundaries in his 123-ball knock. Importantly, Venugopala gave no respite to the Central bowlers and played till the end. S. Badrinath joined the party and provided a fitting finale by scoring 18 runs off the final over.

Kartik to undergo surgery

Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik will be leaving for Melbourne later this month to undergo a shoulder surgery. Kartik, who did not play against South, will be also be missing the match against East on Monday.

The scores:

South: R. Uthappa b Yadav 1, S. Vidyut st. Yagnik b Yadav 158, Y. Venugopala Rao (not out) 103, D. Kaarthick c S. Shukla b H. Singh 22, H. Badani c S. Shukla b Harvinder 4, S. Badrinath (not out) 22, Extras (lb-3, nb-1, w-13): 17, Total (for four wickets in 50 overs) 327.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-239, 3-288, 4-294.

Central bowling: Yadav 10-0-52-2, H. Singh 10-0-69-2, Kumar 10-0-68-0, Mishra 3.3-0-26-0, Ali 7-0-35-0, Bundela 1.3-0-8-0, Acharya 6-0-50-0, S. Shukla 2-0-16-0.

Central: J.P. Yadav c Badani b Vinay 6, S. Shukla c Badrinath b Suresh 3, T.P. Singh c Reddy b Vinay 14, P. Kumar b Suresh 5, A. Ali c Vidyut b Venugopala 73, D. Bundela b Akhil 1, R. Shukla (not out) 94, S. Khare c & b Venugopala 14, D. Yagnik c Badrinath b Raghu 11, M. Acharya (run out) 19, H. Singh c Vinay b Raghu 4, Extras (w-3): 3, Total (in 50 overs): 247.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-17, 3-24, 4-32, 5-40, 6-168, 7-192, 8-219, 9-243.

South bowling: Vinaykumar 7-0-31-2, Suresh 8-1-37-2, Akhil 6-0-27-1, Reddy 8-0-36-0, Raghu 10-0-58-2, Venugopala 10-0-47-2, Badrinath 1-0-11-0.

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