Joginder Sharma gave a fine exhibition of seam bowling with a six-wicket haul as North Zone beat West by five wickets to defend its Deodhar Trophy title at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Wednesday.
North's pacers made the best use of a helpful track in the morning after Amit Mishra lost the toss for the second consecutive time. They bundled out West for a paltry 101 inside 27 overs after which North achieved the target within 30 overs.
Joginder, who was named man-of-the-match, struck early removing two West wickets at the score of 13.
The Haryana bowler trapped rival captain Parthiv Patel in front and then got rid of an aggressive Kedar Devdhar making the youngster hit straight to Paras Dogra at point.
At the other end, Ishant Sharma was showing how devastating he could be when in good rhythm. The lanky Delhi bowler constantly beat batsmen with his precise line and movement.
He got his reward in his fourth over when Wasim Jaffer edged to wicketkeeper Nitin Saini. Ishant then produced a gem to uproot Rohit's off stump.
Two balls later, he delivered a fine in-swinger to the left-handed Ravindra Jadeja, who inside-edged it onto the stumps.
Ishant's Delhi Statemate Sumit Narwal also kept it tidy. He deserved more wickets than just the one of Cheteshwar Pujara, who was foxed by a gentle out-swinger.
A determined Joginder came back and accounted for Siddharth Chitnis, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla and Jaydev Unadkat.
This was the first time Joginder has taken more than five wickets in one-dayers.
Mishra was delighted to lift North's 13th Deodhar Trophy.
“I thought if they get around 180-190 it would be good (for us to chase). Both Joginder and Ishant bowled well,” said Mishra.
The scores:
West Zone: P. Patel lbw b Joginder 2, W. Jaffer c Saini b Ishant 9, K. Devdhar c Dogra b Joginder 6, Rohit Sharma b Ishant 16, C. Pujara c Saini b S. Narwal 6, R. Jadeja b Ishant 0, S. Chitnis c Saini b Joginder 4, I. Abdulla b Joginder 28, D. Kulkarni c Dhawan b Joginder 9, J. Unadkat c Dogra b Joginder 4, I. Choudhary (not out) 0; Extras (lb-8, nb-2, w-7): 17; Total (in 26.3 overs): 101.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-13, 3-37, 4-46, 5-46, 6-54, 7-55, 8-82, 9-98.
North Zone bowling: Joginder 8.3-1-40-6, Ishant 8-2-22-3, Narwal 8-2-22-1, Mishra 2-0-9-0.
North Zone: S. Dhawan b Unadkat 8, R.I. Singh (not out) 43, N. Saini c Jaffer b Unadkat 4, Yashpal Singh c Unadkat b Kulkarni 3, P. Dogra c Chitnis b Abdulla 34, A. Mishra c C. Pujara b Rohit 2, Joginder (not out) 7; Extras (w-6): 6; Total (for five wickets in 29.1 overs): 107.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-31, 3-45, 4-93, 5-99.
West Zone bowling: Unadkat 6-2-17-2, Kulkarni 7-1-29-1, Choudhary 9-2-28-0, Abdulla 4-0-19-1, Jadeja 2.1-0-12-0, Rohit 1-0-2-1.
