Axar Patel guided West Zone to a two-wicket win in a pulsating Deodhar Trophy semifinal against South Zone at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
There were many twists and turns, particularly after the lunch interval that put South in driver’s seat before the Gujarat allrounder clinched the match with remarkable support from the No.10 batsman Shardul Thakur. Patel hit a six off Baba Aparajith to finish the match in style with 17 balls to spare. The undefeated ninth wicket pair made 50 off 37 balls.
West was lucky that Suryakumar Yadav (80 off 56 balls) enjoyed two ‘lives’ on 9 and 11; he was first dropped by medium pacer Ashish Reddy off his own bowling and then by Mayank Agarwal. It was the first match in three in the ongoing tournament that a team batting second won.
Early setback
Chasing 315 for victory, West suffered an early setback losing Smit Patel in the sixth over. Then Sheldon Jackson and Ambati Rayudu seemed to have got the measure of South’s pace attack when the right-handed Jackson drove off his front foot, but his aerial shot did not gain sufficient elevation to beat Samson at mid off.
The South Zone skipper Vinay Kumar trapped Rayudu in front and forced his counterpart Yusuf Pathan pull a short ball to Manish Pandey at mid wicket. The downfall of five batsmen in a little under 12 overs changed the complexion of the game for West from an encouraging 118 for one to a hopeless 174 for six.
Samson and Baba Aparajith were responsible for keeping South in a good position. Samson — with Robin Uthappa engaged in wicket-keeping duties — took an acrobatic catch to send back Jackson and Baba Aparajith held a well-judged catch to remove the dangerous-looking Yadav. But Yadav and Patel’s bold batting display saw West advance by 70 runs off just 31 balls.
Earlier, Uthappa and Agarwal put on a 104-run opening stand after being asked to bat first. South maintained a high scoring rate to set a stiff target. Uthappa became a victim to a direct-hit run out, but the in-form Agarwal, Pandey, Aparajith and Karun Nair scored off seamers Dhawal Kulkarni, Thakur and the three spinners.
Scoreboard
South Zone: Robin Uthappa run out 47 (49b, 2x4), Mayank Agarwal st. Smit Patel b Hooda 86 (87b, 10x4), Baba Aparajith c Thakur b Kulkarni 56 (64b, 2x4, 2x6), Manish Pandey c Jadhav b Dominic 55 (50b, 5x4), Karun Nair c Rayudu b Kulkarni 35 (34b, 4x4), Stuart Binny c & b Kulkarni 16 (11b, 3x4), Sanju Samson run out 7 (4b, 1x4), R. Vinay Kumar (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (lb-6, w-5): 11; Total (for seven wkts. in 50 overs): 314.
Fall of wickets: 1-104, 2-180, 3-207, 4-269, 5-306, 6-307, 7-314.
West Zone bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 10-0-64-3, Shardul Thakur 8-0-79-0, Dominic Muthuswami 10-0-44-1, Axar Patel 10-0-52-0, Deepak Hooda 6-0-36-1, Yusuf Pathan 6-0-33-0.
West Zone: Smit Patel c Samson b Binny 11 (21b, 1x4), Sheldon Jackson c Samson b Ashish 51 (57b, 7x4), Ambati Rayudu lbw b Vinay Kumar 54 (53b, 7x4, 1x6), Kedar Jadhav c Pandey b Misal 15 (24b, 1x4), Suryakumar Yadav c Aparajith b Binny 80 (56b, 7x4, 4x6), Yusuf Pathan c Pandey b Vinay Kumar 2 (3b), Deepak Hooda st. Uthappa b Pandey 1 (4b), Axar Patel (not out) 64 (38b, 5x4, 4x6), Dhawal Kulkarni c sub b Binny 0 (4b), Shardul Thakur (not out) 31 (23b, 3x4, 2x6); Extras (lb-2, w-8): 10; Total (for eight wkts. in 47.1 overs): 319.
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-118, 3-119, 4-159, 5-163, 6-174, 7-244, 8-269.
South Zone bowling: Vinay Kumar 10-0-70-2, Abhimanyu Mithun 7-0-38-0, Stuart Binny 8-1-66-3, Misal 8-0-42-1, Ashish Reddy 9-0-70-1, Pandey 2-0-8-1, Aparajith 3.1-0-23-0.
