It was expected to be a needle contest

Partab Ramchand17-Dec-2000It was expected to be a needle contest. And it lived up toexpectations. Ultimately South Zone got the better of holdersNorth Zone in the semifinal of the Deodhar Trophy tournamentby three wickets with nine deliveries to spare at Green Parkin Kanpur on Sunday. They now await the winner of the othersemifinal to be played between Central Zone and West Zone onMonday.South Zone’s confidence must have been boosted by their sevenwicket victory over East Zone in the quarterfinal on Friday.But then North Zone were always going to be tougher opponents.However, displaying fighting spirit and all round skill, SouthZone emerged triumphant to make the final which will be playedin Lucknow on December 21.North Zone captain Vikram Rathour won the toss and elected tobat. He and Indian wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya gave the team agood start by putting on 39 runs off eight overs beforeRathour was caught by Venkatpathy Raju off Ganesh. Off thenext delivery, Ganesh bowled Yuvraj Singh and North Zone weresuddenly reduced to 39 for two.Dahiya and wicketkeeper Pankaj Dharmani initiated a recoveryprocess by adding 66 runs off 13.4 overs for the third wicket.Dharmani was then bowled by Raju for 26. North Zone slippedfurther when Virender Shewag was bowled by Robin Singh fortwo. Dahiya however kept one end going and he and Mongia added38 runs for the fifth wicket off ten overs.Leg spinner WD Balaji Rao now struck telling blows. First, hehad Mongia (23) giving him a return catch. Then he terminatedDahiya’s fighting knock by bowling him. Dahiya’s 79 wascompiled off 105 balls and he hit five boundaries. VijayBhardwaj gave a helping hand by removing Harbhajan Singh (2).In the next over, Balaji Rao trapped Rahul Sanghvi leg beforefor two. Suddenly, North Zone had slumped from 154 for four inthe 34th over to 181 for eight in the 41st over.Reetinder Singh Sodhi kept the score moving and he was aidedby Gagandeep Singh in a ninth wicket partnership that added 26runs off six overs. Gagandeep Singh was then stumped by LNPReddy off Balaji Rao for seven. Last man Ashish Nehra madegood use of the long handle, hitting a six and a four inscoring 13 off 12 balls before he was run out off the lastball of the innings. Sodhi remained unbeaten with a valuable37 off 39 balls inclusive of a six and a four. Balaji Raofinished with four for 44 off nine overs.A target of 226 runs against some varied North Zone bowlingwas not exactly going to be an easy task. And South Zone’s jobwas made tougher with openers Arun Kumar (14) and Amit Pathak(14) falling in the space of three deliveries after an openingstand of 33 runs. But then VVS Laxman and Vijay Bhardwaj putSouth Zone in the driver’s seat with a third wicketpartnership of 134 runs off 25.5 overs. By the time the standwas broken in the 35th over, South Zone seemed to be cruisingto victory. Bhardwaj’s 45 was compiled off 74 balls and he hittwo of them to the ropes. At his going, South Zone requiredonly 58 runs from 15 overs.North Zone however came right back into the match with thedismissals of Bhardwaj and Laxman off successive deliveries.Laxman was bowled by Shewag for 76. He faced 89 balls and hitseven of them to the fence. Vanka Pratap (10) and skipperRobin Singh inched South Zone towards the target by adding 28runs off eight overs. However Shewag brought North Zone backinto the game by dismissing Pratap and Ganesh (0) in the sameover. And when LNP Reddy was run out for nought in the 46thover, South Zone at 205 for seven suddenly had a job on theirhands.Robin Singh and T Kumaran however made light of a tough taskby quickly hitting off the remaining runs. They added 22 runsoff 3.1 overs to steer South Zone to a well deserved victory.Robin, the crisis man, remained unbeaten with 28 off 40 ballswith two fours while Kumaran hit eleven runs off 12 deliverieswith one boundary hit. Off spinner Shewag was easily the pickof the bowlers finishing with three for 19 off eight overs.