Date:23/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/23/stories/2008032356011600.htm

Sport - Cricket

North, South looking for a win

Special Correspondent

VISKAHAPATNAM: Both North and South Zone are out of title race in the Prof D.B. Deodhar Trophy tournament and both are yet to score a win after two matches.

That both would attempt to register a win should make Sunday’s league match at the ACA-VCDA stadium interesting.

North had lost to West in its previous match played here on March 20 and South was beaten by Central at Hyderabad. Sunday’s match is the third game for both teams.

Gambhir, who will lead North, and his opening partner Aakash Chopra need to provide a good start.

The collapse of the top order in the previous matches had pushed the team into deep trouble.

Former India under-22 player Karan Goel of Punjab, an opening bat and off-spinner, is replacing Sehwag.

The teams (from):

North Zone: Gautam Gambhir (capt.), Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, P. Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Amit Mishra, Manpreet Gony, Vikramjeet Malik, Yashpal Singh, Parass Dogra, Vishal Bhatia, Sanjay Badhwan.

Coach: Anjupal Das. Manager: Sushil Kapoor. Physio: Badri.

South Zone: S. Badrinath (capt.), N. Arjun Yadav, Bharath Chipli, Robin Uthappa, Gnaneswara Rao, Dinesh Karthik, M. Vijay, Vinay Kumar, D. Kalyana Krishna, P.M. Sarvesh Kumar, P. Pragyan Ojha, C. Raghu, Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan, Saurav Bandekar and Abhinav Kumar.

Coach: Vivek Jaisimha. Manager: K.V. Srinivas. Physio: Vijay.