Arun Kumar's century pales before Kambli, Muzumdar's onslaught

By Our Special Correspondent

RAJKOT, JAN. 22. Capitalising on curious cricketing deja vu, Vinod Kambli and Amol Muzumdar redeemed themselves and their team with a double century stand, as West Zone chased 317 to win its Deodhar Trophy match against South at the Municipal Stadium here today.

Kambli and Muzumdar came together at 64 for two and put on 226 for the third wicket, controlling the tempo of the run chase with ease. Under conventional circumstances, a total of 317 could have virtually guaranteed victory to South, but no one had counted on Kambli and Muzumdar producing what could only be described as a turnaround performance.

Today Kambli scored his second successive unbeaten century, after 106 not out against North, but this was a brighter, worthier innings. His 119 not out (103b, 10x4, 3x6) featured some stylish strokeplay, including two sixes off Aashish Kapoor, and most importantly some aggressive running between wickets. Muzumdar looked comfortable against the South bowlers and got to his century in very good time (109, 108 balls, 10x4). When he was run out, West was still 28 short, but had seven overs to get them.

The sheer driving purpose of this third-wicket stand washed out an equally attractive century from South Zone opener J. Arun Kumar (121, 121b, 13x4, 2x6) in the morning.

Kambli and Muzumdar shared an unbroken 208 for the second-wicket against Central Zone two seasons ago. Today their 226-run stand came within six runs short of the best for any wicket in the Deodhar Trophy - 232 for the opening wicket between Ashu Dani and Vikram Rathour last season.

Before the start of the match, both the teams and officials observed a two-minute silence in memory of the former BCCI President M.A. Chidambaram, who passed away in Chennai earlier this week.

The scores:

South Zone: Nanda Kishore c Zahir Khan b Siddiqui 4, J. Arun Kumar st Mongia b Parsanna 121, S. Mahesh c Mongia b Siddiqui 85, S. Sriram (run out) 16, S. Sharath c Mongia b Bhoite 12, H. Badani (run out) 0, Reuben Paul (not out) 42, Aashish Kapoor c Parsanna b Kulkarni 4, D. Ganesh lbw b Kulkarni 8, S. Nair (not out) 1. Extras (lb-8, nb-4, w-12) 24. Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs) 317.

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-185, 3-214, 4- 260, 5-260, 6-260, 7-279, 8-315.

West Zone bowling: Zahir Khan 10-0-68-0, Siddiqui 9-0-61-2, Nilesh Kulkarni 10-0-52-2, Hitesh Parsanna 10- 0-64-1, Ajit Bhoite 10-0-54-1, Sitanshu Kotak 1-0-10-0.

West Zone: S. Kotal c & b Kumaran 31, N. Modi c Ganesh b Nair 20, V. Kambli (not out) 119, A. Muzumdar (run out) 109, A. Kale b Kumaran 5, N. Mongia (not out) 18. Extras (lb-6, nb-6, w-6) 18. Total (for four wkts. in 47.5 overs) 320.

Fall of wickets: 1-60, 2-64, 3-290, 4- 298.

South Zone bowling: Kumaran 10-0-69-2, Ganesh 9-0-64-0, Sreekumar Nair 8.5-1-53-1, Aashish Kapoor 10-0- 56-0, Mahesh 8-0-55-0, Sriram 2-0-17-0.

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