CHAMPIONS SUPREME: By retaining the Deodhar Trophy, North Zone has won the championship a record eleven times. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

JAIPUR : When bad light forced an early end to North Zone's search for victory over East in the crucial Deodhar Trophy league match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here, the faces in the eventual champion's dressing room lit up.

Aware that South was holding the upper hand over West at Udaipur, the North players could no longer wait to celebrate. They posed for a group photograph assuming that South's victory would help them defend the title. Their assumption came good as South scripted a dramatic victory.

North was adjudged the winner by 52 runs when play could not be resumed after 3.54 p.m. due to light drizzle and resultant bad light. At this stage, chasing North's 284 for three in 49 overs, East was 146 for six in 30.4 overs. Umpires Suresh Shastri and A. Saheba checked the light again at 4.50 and completed the formalities of calling off play.

The margin of victory was based on the VJD method. The Board has adopted the method, similar to the Duckworth-Lewis method, for domestic matches this season.

Ganguly goes first ball

Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (77 not out, 8 x 4) provided the only bright spot for East, as it was never really in the hunt because wickets fell at regular intervals after Sourav Ganguly went for a first-ball duck. Thereafter, V.R.V. Singh struck thrice to seal East's fate.

The victory, worth five points including a bonus, took North's tally to 14 points. South and West tied with 12 each, Central had three and East none. This was North's 11th title, most for any zone.

Electing to bat, Mithun Manhas led by example and shared a 155-run stand with fellow century-maker Reetinder Singh Sodhi. The two came together after Gambhir (39, 6 x 4, 1 x 6) paid the price for moving too far across and had his leg-stump uprooted by medium-pacer Shib Sankar Paul.

A chanceless knock

Manhas, who scored a chanceless 105, had eight fours in a half-century that came off just 57 balls. "This was a timely century but I still feel the one against South was better," said the 26-year-old who finished with an aggregate of 284 runs in four innings.

"I had scored around 290 runs in the North Zone one-day league. It makes me feel good especially after I failed to get going in the longer version of the game this season."

Sodhi, lucky to be dropped at six by Mihir Diwakar at cover, produced some lusty hits on way to his maiden century (108 not out, 8 x 4, 3 x 6) in the championship. Dharmani chipped in with a 20-ball 21 in the closing overs.

The scores:

North Zone: S. Dhawan b Bose 5, G. Gambhir b Paul 39, M. Manhas b Bose 105, R. S. Sodhi (not out) 108, P. Dharmani (not out) 21, Extras (lb-2, nb-1, w-3) 6, Total (for three wkts. in 49 overs) 284.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-82, 3-237.

East bowling: S.S. Paul 10-0-48-1, R. Bose 9-0-66-2, M. Diwakar 9-0-51-0, L.R. Shukla 5-0-40-0, S. Lahiri 10-0-49-0, M. Tiwari 6-0-28-0.

East Zone: S. Das b V.R.V. Singh 17, S. Ganguly c Dharmani b J. Sharma 0, A. Jhunjhunwala (not out) 77, M. Tiwari c Dharmani b V.R.V. Singh 6, R. Kumar c Mishra b V.R.V. Singh 1, V. Saravanan st. Dharmani b Mishra 20, L.R. Shukla b Sodhi 1, D. Dasgupta (not out) 9, Extras (lb-5, nb-6, w-4) 15, Total (for six wickets in 30.4 overs) 146. Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-43, 3-57, 4-64, 5-122, 6-123.

North bowling: G. Singh 7-0-36-0, J. Sharma 6-0-26-1, V.R.V. Singh 6.4-0-36-3, R. S. Sodhi 6-1-18-1, A. Mishra 5-0-25-1.

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