A solid 78 by Rohit Sharma helped West Zone defeat North Zone by 120 runs in the Deodhar Trophy match in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.
Sharma's knock came off 97 balls with the help of four hits to the fence. Captain Wasim Jaffer also made a valuable 64 to build a respectable score of 241 all out in 48.5 overs.
In reply, North Zone could do little against an all-round solid bowling display by the opposition bowlers and were bundled out for 121 in just 35.2 overs.
Munaf Patel, Ajit Agarkar, Iqbal Abdulla and Abhishek Nayar claimed two wickets each.
Rajat Bhatia was the topscorer for North Zone with 35.
West Zone got five points while North got one.
The 138-run third wicket stand between Jaffer and Sharma was the highlight of the West Zone innings. They came together with the score reading 31 for two and gradually took the team to a position of strength.
Medium pacer Manpreet Gony (4-35) and off-spinner Virender Shewag (4-17) were the most successful North Zone bowlers.
The North Zone innings started in disastrous fashion as the celebrated trio of Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir returned to the pavilion with just two runs on the board.
The team never recovered and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The biggest partnership was for the fifth wicket and yielded 46 runs.
Skipper Sehwag managed just 18 runs.
