Jadeja dazzles in North Zone's win

By Our Special Correspondent

RAJKOT, JAN. 19. North Zone's last-minute inclusion became its man of the moment as it beat West Zone by 29 runs in the Deodhar Trophy at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation ground today. Ajay Jadeja's flair with the bat and energy in the field only typified North Zone's entire effort here today but all the same it was no surprise that the spotlight stayed firmly on the India swashbuckler.

North Zone and Jadeja did everything right: right from the moment skipper Vikram Rathour won the toss and batted first on a wicket which possessed the temperament of a lamb, and spelt slaughter for the bowlers. West Zone was wayward with the ball and the North Zone top order tucked in, finishing its 50 overs at 312-8. In return, its miserly bowling and sharp work in the field was too much for West which ran out of breath at the tape, ending up with 283-9 in 50 overs.

Led by Jadeja's masterful 91 off 90 balls (10x4, 1x6), the North Zone batsmen waded into the undisciplined bowling. Pankaj Dharmani's watchful 70 (94b, 5x4, 1x6), was an innings on the straight and narrow. But it was a memorable cameo from Virender Sehwag which sent North into overdrive. In the crucial penultimate ten overs of the North Zone innings, the Delhi all- rounder knocked off 66 (7x4, 3x6) runs in 39 balls. North was touching eight an over when he was at the crease and by the time West got rid of him through a communication glitch with Dharmani, it was too late.

The troika of Jadeja, Dharmani and Sehwag had kept North in business for 28 overs before Sehwag fell. Together they put up 192 runs in the bargain and gave the lower order a safety net in which to throw their bats at everything.

West would know exactly where it went wrong if it study lynchpin Vinod Kambli's innings. The left-hander kick- started the reply scoring 50 in quick time (56b, 9x4). His second 50 which formed the mid-section of West's effort was where the home team faltered: choked by an attacking field and off-spinner Sarandeep tight middle-and-off line, West could only manage 30 runs between the 30th and the 40th over. Kambli did cross the three-figure but his second 50 was scraped together rather than plundered.

When he finished at 106 (131b, 12x4) the die was already cast in North's favour.

Jadeja threw himself into the on-field action: he was involved in two run outs, the first with a flat sharp throw from the deep to the keeper which sent back Amol Muzumdar (42, 50b), and the second a smooth pick-up at full tilt followed by a direct hit from mid-on which had Kambli stranded.

The scores:

North Zone: A. Dani (run out) 9 , V. Rathour c Kulkarni b Siddiqui 33 , A. Jadeja c Mongia b Zahir Khan 91 , P. Dharmani c Parsanna b Zahir Khan 70, V. Sehwag (run out) 66 , D. Mongia c Kale b Mhambrey 11 , M. Manhas b Kulkarni 9 , S. Singh (run out) 5 , A. Bhandari (not out) 4 , R. Sanghvi (not out) 1 . Extras (lb2 nb5 w6) 13 . Total ( for eight wickets in 50 overs) 312 .

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-74, 3-172, 4-266, 5-290, 6- 294, 7-305, 8-309.

West Zone bowling: P. Mhambrey 10-0-59- 1 (w1 nb1), Zahir Khan 10-0-54-2 (w3 nb4) , I. Siddiqui 10-0-68-1 N. Kulkarni 10-0-56-1 , H. Parsanna 10-0-73-0 (w2) .

West Zone: W. Jaffer c Rathour b Robin Singh Jr. 21 , S. Kotak (run out) 28 , V. Kambli (run out) 106 , A Muzumdar (run out) 42 , H. Parsanna c Sarandeep b Robin Singh Jr. 3 , A. Kale c Sehwag b Sanghvi 20 , Z. Khan b Robin Singh Jr. 1 , N. Mongia (not out) 29 , P. Mhambrey c Rathour b Sanghvi 12, I. Siddiqui lbw Jadeja 2 , N. Kulkarni (not out) 8 . Extras (lb4 nb5 w2) 11 . Total (for nine wickets in 50 overs) 283.

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-115, 3-198, 4- 204, 5-211, 6-219, 7-230, 8-258, 9-265 .

North Zone bowling: Robin Singh Jr. 10- 0-53-3, A. Bhandari 9-0- 59-0 (w2 nb3) , A . Jadeja 9-0-56-1 (1nb), S. Singh 10-0-38-0 (1nb) , R. Sanghvi 8-0-46-2 , V. Sehwag 4-0-27-0 .

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