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West wins with a bonus point again

Special Correspondent

North suffers its second straight reverse

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

TAKING CHARGE: West Zone’s Rohit Sharma set up his team’s win with a fluent knock against North Zone.

VISAKHAPATNAM: West Zone crushed North Zone by 120 runs to record its second consecutive win with a bonus point in the Deodhar Trophy at the ACA-VDCA stadium here on Thursday.

It was a satisfying day for captain Wasim Jaffer as he warmed up for the first Test against South Africa with a fine knock of 64 (92b, 7x4). He was involved in a 138-run stand for the third wicket with the more aggressive Rohit Sharma (78, 97b, 9x4, 2x6) as West made 241.

Terrible start

The target was not big but Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel reduced North to three for two by the fourth over from which it never recovered. Munaf trapped Aakash Chopra in front while Gautam Gambhir fell to Agarkar in the same fashion, the ball keeping low on both occasions. Agarkar then picked up Shikhar Dhawan.

Virender Sehwag walked in but West continued to put pressure. The Indian star first sent the lanky speedster Siddharth Trivedi to the fence. However, Sehwag’s attempted pull shot off the same bowler resulted in a catch to the point fielder.

Virat Kohli, captain of the under-19 World Cup-winning team, and Rajat Bhatia dug in for a while but their 46-run stand for the fifth wicket ended with the former (22, 43b, 3x4) driving straight back to medium-pacer Abhishek Nayar.

Bhatia (35, 58b, 4x4) continued to fight before Yusuf Pathan held him at deep square-leg off Munaf. In the morning, North, after putting West in, had early success as the young Manpreet Gony removed the openers with only 31 runs on board. Then came the Jaffer-Rohit partnership.

After the pair was separated, Parthiv Patel and Venugopala Rao looked like accelerating but Sehwag brought himself on and immediately removed Venugopala. Parthiv, too, fell to Sehwag. West took five points from this match, including the bonus, to reach nine from three outings (two wins, a loss and a minus point). North received its second minus point in as many matches.

The scores: West: Y. Pathan c Kaul b Manpreet Gony 5, A. Rahane c Vikramjeet bt Manpreet Gony 9, W. Jaffer c & b Mishra 64, Rohit st. Kaul b Bhatia 78, Parthiv c Kohli b Sehwag 19, Venugopala Rao c Kohli b Sehwag 14, A. Nayar c Sangwan b Manpreet Gony 10, A. Agarkar c Mishra bt Manpreet Gony 12, I. Abdulla c Vikramjeet b Sehwag 5, Munaf (not out) 0, S. Trivedi c Bhatia b Sehwag 4; Extras (lb-3, nb-2, w-16): 21; Total (in 48.5 overs): 241.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-31, 3-169, 4-171, 5-200, 6-217, 7-220, 8-237, 9-237.

North bowling: Manpreet Gony 10-2-35-4, Vikramjeet 9-0-46-0, Sangwan 7-1-51-0, Bhatia 10-0-36-1, Mishra 10-0-53-1, Sehwag 2.5-0-17-4.

North: A. Chopra lbw b Munaf 0, S. Dhawan c Parthiv b Agarkar 1, G. Gambhir lbw b Agarkar 1, V. Kohli c & b Nayar 22, V. Sehwag c Rahane b Trivedi 18, R. Bhatia c Pathan b Munaf 35, U. Kaul c Rohit b Nayar 2, A. Mishra b Abdulla 9, Sangwan (run out) 7, V. Malik c Agarkar b Abdulla 11, M. Gony (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-10): 15; Total (in 35.2 overs): 121.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-33, 5-79, 6-87, 7-101, 8-103, 9-116.

West bowling: Munaf 8-0-16-2, Agarkar 8-2-31-2, Trivedi 9-0-34-1, Nayar 5-0-18-2, Abdulla 5.2-2-17-2.

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