Ambati Rayudu stars as West Zone lift Deodhar trophy

West Zone defeated their counterparts from the North Zone with five wickets to spare to emerge victorious in the final of the Deodhar Trophy at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati.

In the end, it was a well calculated chase by the West Zone batsmen, with Rayudu dropping the anchor and finishing with an unbeaten 78 of 89 balls, ably supported by Parthiv Patel, Manprit Juneja and Kedar Jadhav, who scored 58, 56, and 57 respectively.

The North Zone bowlers toiled hard but without much penetration, as all the bowlers were largely ineffective. Manpreet Gony and Parvinder Awana, both of whom have represented India in shortest format of the game, were especially poor, and went for over eight runs per over, leaving Captain Gambhir with very little options to turn to.

With his knock, Ambati Rayudu has staked his claim in the ODI side for the Champions Trophy in England later this year, which is India’s next tour assignment.

Earlier, Unmukt Chand and Yuvraj Singh were the biggest contributors to their team’s cause by scoring 88 and 67 runs respectively, while the West Zone bowling attack was as meek as their counterparts’, allowing the North Zone to pile up 289/8 in their 50 overs.