Rohan’s century, South Zone won the Deodhar Trophy for the ninth time

South Zone lifted the Deodhar Trophy ODI cricket tournament title for the ninth time, beating East Zone by 45 runs in the final here on Thursday, riding on a blistering century from opener Rohan Kanumal. Rohan played a blistering inning of 107 off 75 balls which included 11 fours and four sixes. He laid a strong foundation by sharing a 181-run partnership for the first wicket with captain Mayank Agarwal (63 off 83 balls). Narayan Jagadeesan also scored a 60-ball 54 as South Zone, who won the toss and elected to bat, posted a robust 328 for eight. In reply, East Zone did not get off to a good start and were 14 for three at one stage.

Riyan Parag played a stormy inning of 95 runs in 65 balls with the help of eight fours and five sixes. He shared a 105-run partnership for the sixth wicket with wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Kushagra (68 off 58 balls). However, this only reduced the margin of defeat and East Zone were eventually bowled out for 283 in 46.1 overs. South Zone pacers Vasuki Kaushik and Vidwat Kavarappa did not take long to unsettle the East Zone top-order. Both of them had sent Abhimanyu Easwaran (01), Utkarsh Singh (04) and Virat Singh (06) to the pavilion till the fifth over. After this, Sudeep Kumar (41) and captain Saurabh Tiwary (28) shared a 58-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Washington Sundar broke the partnership by dismissing Tiwary while Sai Kishore sent Sudeep to the pavilion to reduce the score to 115 for five.

Parag showed a good example of his attacking game and tried to make the match exciting by playing big shots on every bowler of South Zone. Washington did not allow him to complete his century by getting out lbw. After this, Washington also put an end to the stormy attitude of Kushagra, who hit four fours and three sixes in his innings. East Zone lost their last three wickets in the space of six balls. For South Zone, Washington took three for 60 while Kaushik, Kavarappa and Vijaykumar Vaishakh took two wickets each. Earlier, Rohan and Agarwal justified the decision to bat first by winning the toss and scoring quick runs.

While Rohan openly displayed his aggressive nature, Agarwal supported him well. Both of them, however, went back to the pavilion within three runs after which South Zone lost wickets at regular intervals.Both of them were dismissed by Utkarsh Singh (2/50) in their successive overs. Apart from Utkarsh, Riyan Parag and Shahbaz Ahmed also took two wickets each. South zone batsmen Sai Sudarshan (19) and Rohit Rayudu (26) could not convert starts into big scores while Arun Karthik (02) and Washington Sundar (00) did not last long. In the lower order, Sai Kishore contributed an unbeaten 24 off 19 balls.

Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.

---

---