Ashwin, Agarwal get South Zone off the mark

: South Zone’s steadfast bowling effort paved the way for its first win in three matches against West Zone in the Syed Mushtaq Ali inter-zonal Twenty20 league tournament at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

Mayank Agarwal (70, 46b, 9 x 4, 2 x 6) showed his hitting power in front of the wicket and other clean and crisp cricketing shots to score half the runs that his team needed to win, but the opener’s powerful display came after the South bowlers showed a lot of purpose, skill and efficacy, especially leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin who caused the downfall of two important West batsman, Sheldon Jackson and Kedar Jadav.

After opting to field first, South put the brakes on West soon after left- arm spinner Rahil Shah removed skipper Parthiv Patel in the last ball of the fourth over. Jackson and Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare repaired the early damage. The South seamers and spinners who were deployed smartly by Vijay Shankar (replacing R.Vinay Kumar as captain) – held sway right through the first session.

Ashwin struck the big blow when he took a superb reflex-catch of his own bowling when Jadhav hit a hard flat-batted shot in the second ball of the thirteenth over. Jadhav’s exit allowed South to take control in an emphatic manner. Deepak Hooda lifted the first six of the West innings in the fourteenth over off Shah and repeated the shot of the same bowler, but while attempting to reverse hit the spinner,he got himself off-balanced, dragged himself outside his crease for Karthik to whip off the bails in a flash.

In the end left-arm seamer Chama Milind picked up three wickets as West’s innings hastened to a close leaving a fraction over seven runs an over for South to chase.

Right-hander Vishnu Vinod countered the left-arm seam of Irfan Pathan with an expansive swipe over mid wicket for a six, hammered 36 off 20 balls , and helped his team race to 48 for the first wicket of 30 balls. After his departure, Agarwal took charge making an fluent half century with a number of aerial shots, in particular of the 45-year-old leg- spinner Pravin Tambe.

The scores :

West Zone : Sheldon Jackson c Deshpande b M. Ashwin 23, Parthiv Patel c Vijay Shankar b Shah 10, Aditya Tare c Vishnu Vinod b Vijay Shankar 26, Kedar Jadhav c & b M. Ashwin 9, Deepak Hooda st Karthik b Shah 32, Rujul Bhatt c Karthik b Milind 8, Abhishak Nayar lbw b Milind 0, Irfan Pathan b Milind 26, S. Sanandia c M.Ashwin b Vijay Shankar 1, Pravin Tambe (not out) 0; Extras (lb-1,w-4) 5; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 140.

Fall of wickets : 1-25, 2-58, 3-64, 4-81, 5-112, 6-112,7-118,8-123, 9-140.

South Zone bowling : Sandeep Warrier 4-1-19-0, Chama Milind 4-0-41-3, Rahil Shah 4-0-34-2, Murugan Ashwin 4-0-24-2, Vijay Shankar 4-0-21-2.

South Zone : Vishnu Vinod lbw b Tambe 36, Mayank Agarwal c Hooda b Sanandia 70, Vijay Shankar retd. hurt 2 , Dinesh Karthik b Chaudhary 17, Ricky Bhui c P.Patel b I.Pathan 0, Hanuma Vihari run out 5, Pavan Deshpande (not out) 9, Murugan Ashwin (not out) 1; Extras (lb-1) 1; Total (for five wkts. in 17.4 overs): 141.

Fall of wickets : 1-48, 2-114, 3-115, 4-125, 5-136.

West Zone bowling : Irfan Pathan 4-0-22-1, Shaurya Sanandia 4-0-32-1, Ishwar Chaudhary 4-0-27-1, Pravin Tambe 4-0-44-1, Rujul Bhatt 1.4-0-15-0.