It was the clash of the two most competitive sides of the Deodhar Trophy, and the match lived up to its billing in terms of excitement as South Zone pulled off a heist beating West Zone by 12 runs at the Cricket Association of Puducherry ground on Wednesday.
Asked to bat first, South Zone was bundled out for just 206, with only skipper Mayank Agarwal waging a lone battle making a well-constructed 98 (115b, 9x4).
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The Karnataka batter was dropped when he was on seven by Parth Bhut at backward point and made the opponents pay for their folly.
Agarwal milked the bowling attack sensibly and showed how to play risk-free cricket, scoring just nine boundaries even as he saw his teammates fritter away their wickets with poor shots.
But the opener would rue how he got out and missed out on a century, needlessly trying to reverse-sweep Bhut (3/25) only to hit it straight to the backward point fielder.
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Defending a modest target, South Zone bowlers fought tooth and nail and pulled off an improbable victory, with Sai Kishore (3/44) scalping three wickets.
However, it was the Karnataka pacers who set it up initially when V. Koushik castled Harvik Desai while V. Kaverappa got Rahul Tripathi leg-before as West slumped to 26 for three.
The big-hitting Sarfaraz (42) started slowly but got West back into the game as he took on the South bowlers. He began by lofting Vyshak for a six down the ground before upper-cutting the pacer over the keeper in the same over.
He then smashed Sai Kishore for a few boundaries. But just when he threatened to take the game away, Vyshak had the batter caught behind down the leg-side.
Atit Sheth (40) and Shivam Dube played sensibly and stitched a 65-run stand for the sixth wicket in which the former was the enforcer. But a moment of indiscretion from Dube cost his wicket as he top-edged trying to slog sweep Sai Kishore.
It was the opening South was waiting for as Washington Sundar (2/34) then removed Sheth - trapped leg-before with a quicker one - before cleaning up Sham Mulani in quick succession. Sai Kishore then completed the job taking the last two wickets as West committed the cardinal sin of being bowled out with more than 13 overs left when victory was within sight.
The scores:
South Zone 206 in 46.4 overs (Mayank Agarwal 98, Parth Bhut 3/25) bt West Zone 194 in 36.4 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 42, Atit Sheth 40, Sai Kishore 3/44).
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