Deodhar final ends in an exciting tie

The glorious uncertainties of cricket once again came to the fore as the Deodhar Trophy final between Central and South Zones ended in a tie in Lucknow on Thursday, and both teams were declared joint winners.

Needing 11 runs from the last over, the last pair of Venkatapathy Raju and Balaji Rao scored 10 from the first five balls, with Raju hitting a six off the third to take South tantanlisingly close to the target of 299 runs, before he ran himself out off the last ball while going for the non-existent winning run.

South Zone were all out for 298 in reply to the same score. Central, who were sent in to bat by South skipper Robin Singh in the morning, lost eight wickets.

Central captain Amay Khuarasia once again played a cameo knock of 86 to lift the team to an impressive total. But an equally fine knock of 91 runs by V V S Laxman nullified the effort as South almost overtook the target.

Central off to a disastrous start, with their star batsman J P Yadav (10) out to a controversial leg before decision when the score read 22.

Khurasia, coming at number three, got a 'life' when he was dropped by Vijay Bhardwaj before he opened his account.

Khurasia, who did not look his usual self at the start of his innings, went on to play some lusty shots and hit seven fours and one six before falling to Bhardwaj but not before taking his team to a fairly comfortable 177 in 30.2 overs.

Promising Mohammad Kaif made a useful contribution by scoring 41 off 54 balls with the help one four before edging on to V V S Lasman at cover off T Kumaran.

Gagan Khoda (34) and Devendra Bundela (27) too chipped in with useful contributions to take the total to 298 for eight in 50 overs.

South Zone failed to seize the early initiative in their favour with a lacklustre bowling attack coupled with sloppy fielding. Doda Ganesh (2/53) and T Kumaran (2/42) were the only bowlers who showed patches of good bowling attack.

Scoreboard

Central Zone

J P Yadav lbw b Ganesh 10
Rahul Kamat c Reddy b Kumaran 13
Gagan Khoda st Reddy b Raju 34
Amiya Khurasia c and b Bhardwaj 86
Raja Ali c Reddy b Robin Singh 41
Mohammad Kaif c Laxman b T Kumaran 41
Ankit Srivastav run out 12
Murli Kartik c and b Ganesh 0
Devendra Bundela not out 27
Zakir Husain not out 0
Extras (b-7, lb-9, w-14, nb-4): 34
Total (for 8 wkts in 50 overs): 298
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-57, 3-149, 4-177, 5-246, 6-268, 7-293, 8-296.
Bowling: D Ganesh 10-0-53-2, T Kumaran 9-0-42-2, V Bhardwaj 6-0-42-1, R Singh 8-0-47-1, V Raju 9-0-52-1, B Rao 8-0-47-0.

South Zone

J Arun Kumar c Kanwat b Z Husain 21
A Pathak run out 47
D Ganesh b S Srivastava 0
V V S Laxman c Khurasia b Kartik 91
S Sharath c & b Kartik 31
V Bhardwaj run out 6
R Singh st Ankit b Kaif 15
L Prasad reddy run out 30
T Kumaran run out 0
Balaji rao not out 31
V Raju run out 10
Extras (b-1, lb-7, nb-3, w-5): 16
Total (all out in 50 overs) : 298
Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-52, 3-98, 4-157, 5-175, 6-198, 7-254, 8-255, 9-258.
Bowling: Z Husain 7-0-44-1, S Srivastava 10-0-61-1, M Kartik 10-0-58-2, J P Yadav 8-0-58-0, R Kanwat 10-0-38-0, M Kaif 5-0-31-1.

Mail Cricket Editor