Opening batsmen Dheeraj Jadhav and Satyajit Parab slammed centuries and put on 258 runs for the opening wicket to guide West Zone to a 63-run win over champions East Zone in the Deodhar Trophy limited overs league match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
Put into bat, last year's runners-up West Zone made 306 for seven from their stipulated 50 overs with Jadhav making 109 off 134 balls with nine fours and a six, and Parab scoring 142 off 134 balls with 15 fours and a six.
In reply, East's reply was spearheaded by Mahendra Singh Dhoni's fighting 101 off 102 balls but he failed to get good support from his middle order batsmen and they fell short by 63 runs. East were bowled out for 243 with eleven balls to spare.
West Zone, led by Indian paceman Ajit Agarkar, also snatched a bonus point and have five points to their credit.
West were given a flying start by Jadhav and Parab, who put on 258 runs off 44.3 overs for the opening stand.
Seamer Ranadeb Bose (5 for 49) struck vital blows to put the skids on scoring rate before India discard and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel chipped in with a flashy 24 off eleven balls to take his team past the 300 mark.
Though East skipper Devang Gandhi employed as many as seven bowlers. But, apart from Bose, the only other bowler to have an impact was his new ball partner Shib Shankar Paul who took the vital wicket of Parab.
East started off in fine fashion with Indian Test discard Shiv Sunder Das (38 off 39 balls) and Dhoni putting on 86 runs off 11.2 overs and then Dhoni and Devang Gandhi (34 off 44 balls) adding 54 runs for the second wicket off 12.1 overs.
Though Dhoni added another 49 runs off 8.5 overs for the fourth wicket with Laxmi Ratan Shukla (16 off 26 balls), East batting collapsed after the long haired wicketkeeper fell for 101 while trying to lift left arm spinner Rajesh Pawar only to be caught by Irfan Pathan Sr. at long off.
Dhoni, who stayed at the wicket for 158 minutes, hit eleven fours and two huge sixes and was the fifth wicket to tall with the score reading 202 off 36.3 overs.
For West Zone, medium pacers Agarkar claimed 2 for 50 and Ranjit Khirid took two for 46.
They were well supported by spinners Pawar (2 for 32) and Yusuf Pathan and Niraj Patel who took a wicket each with Parthiv Patel effecting one stumping and three catches.
Jadhav, Parab star in West Zone's big win
Mumbai, Jan 23 (PTI)
Scoreboard:
West Zone
D Jadhav run out 109
S Parab b S S Paul 142
Y Pathan c R Gavaskar b Bose 6
A Agarkar c Sarvanan b B Bose 1
R Khirid c Gavaskar b Bose 13
P Patel b Bose 24
N Patel b Bose 1
V Mane not out 0
Extras (3-lb, 7-w) 10
Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 306
Fall of wickets: 1-258, 2-264, 3-266, 4-268, 5-301, 6-306, 7-306.
Bowling: S S Paul 10-0-55-1, R Bose 10-2-49-5, S Sanyal 5-0-41-0, S Lahiri 7-0-46-0, N Behera 10-0-55-0, R Gavaskar 7-0-40-0, D Gandhi 1-0-17-0.
East Zone
S S Das b R Khirid 38
M S Dhoni c Pathan Sr. b Pawar 101
D Gandhi st P Patel b Y Pathan 34
R Gavaskar c P Patel b N Patel 5
L R Shukla c P Patel b A Agarkar 16
S V Sarvanan (run out) 7
N Behera (run out) 0
S Sanyal c P Patel b Agarkar 15
S Lahiri lbw Pawar 3
R Bose (not out) 13
S S Paul b Khirid 3
Extras (2-lb, 5-nb, 1-w) 8
Total (all out in 48.1 overs) 243
Fall of wickets: 1-86, 2-140, 3-149, 4-198, 5-202, 6-206, 7-216, 8-225, 9-230.
Bowling: A Agarkar 10-0-50-2, I Pathan Sr. 5-0-36-0, R Khirid 8.1-1-46-2, R Pawar 10-1-32-2, Y Pathan 9-0-49-1, N Patel 6-0-28-1.
