Deodhar Trophy 2023: Atit Sheth leads West Zone to thrilling one-wicket win over Central

Atit Sheth’s calm and picked up half-century (53, 53b, 4×4, 2×6) within the midst of misery led West Zone to a one-wicket win over Central Zone in a humdinger of a contest within the Deodhar Trophy on the Siechem stadium in Puducherry on Friday.

Harvik Desai (57, 86b, 8×4, 2×6) and captain Priyank Panchal gave West Zone a strong begin earlier than Central Zone opener Shivam Chaudhary broke the again of its chase together with his golden arm.

Karn Sharma, Aditya Sarwate and part-timer Yash Kothari additionally performed their half within the middle-overs choke-hold on a slowing pitch, earlier than Rajvardhan Hangargekar’s whirlwind innings (24, 12b, 1×4, 2×6) coupled with Sheth’s street-smart cricket helped West Zone pull off a heist to safe its second win within the event.

Sheth started cautiously, build up a partnership with Shams Mulani as Central Zone captain Venkatesh Iyer attacked relentlessly with spin. Sheth’s maturity and temperament have been on show as he stitched a 25-run partnership with quantity 11 Chintan Gaja to take the crew over the road.

Earlier within the day, a late flourish from Shivam Mavi (47 of 39 balls) helped Central Zone to a aggressive complete, ending on 243 on the finish of its 50-over essay.

Central Zone misplaced each its openers throughout the first 5 overs. Sheth and Hangargekar pinned the batters down within the first powerplay, conceding solely 18 runs. Sheth’s immaculate line and size meant that he ended his first spell with simply 4 runs conceded in 5 overs, together with three maidens.

Yash Dubey and Upendra Yadav fought again by placing up a 50-run stand, with the pair going after left-arm spinner Shams Mulani to offer the innings the required impetus. After Chintan Gaja trapped Yadav in entrance to interrupt the partnership, skipper Iyer and Dubey placed on a 45-run stand earlier than the latter was dismissed one wanting a half-century.

Iyer regarded in an aggressive temper, operating down the observe commonly, taking part in his acquainted offensive recreation earlier than it resulted in his undoing as he perished attempting to loft Mulani over mid-wicket.

Mulani additionally acquired the wicket of the damaging Rinku Singh for 15, as Central struggled to unlock the next gear in its innings. Karn Sharma performed a wise knock of 44, including some fast runs earlier than being runout.

Mavi then displayed a mixture of energy and precision within the final 5 overs to supply the ultimate push and ensured that the bowlers had a sizeable goal to defend.

Brief Scores: Central Zone 243/7 (Dubey 49, Iyer 43, Sharma 44, Mavi 47*) misplaced to West Zone 244/9 (Desai 57, Panchal 36, Sheth 53*, Chaudhary 4/18)