East Zone beat back a belated challenge from Central Zone to win aclose contest by three wickets on the opening day of the Vijay HazareTrophy (Under-16) cricket tournament at the KL Saini stadium in Jaipuron Sunday
30-Jan-2000East Zone beat back a belated challenge from Central Zone to win aclose contest by three wickets on the opening day of the Vijay HazareTrophy (Under-16) cricket tournament at the KL Saini stadium in Jaipuron Sunday.Opting to bat, Central Zone were all out for 180 in 47 overs. Afterfive wickets had fallen for 56 runs, wicketkeeper AS Naidu (46) andAfroz Khan (67 not out) added 66 runs for the sixth wicket off 15overs in a rescue act. While Naidu faced 68 balls and hit four of themto the ropes, Khan faced 99 balls and hit four fours and asix. Opening bowler and East Zone skipper M Talukdar, who had causedmost of the early damage, was the most successful bowler with threefor 14 from seven overs.When Central Zone batted, valuable contributions from most of theirtop order batsmen – opener M Vardhan (35), Subhjeet Paul (29), PJ Das(24) and A Nandi (31) saw them cruising towards victory at 138 forthree in the 35th over. But then wickets fell at regular intervals andat 167 for seven in the 43rd over, there was some pressure on EastZone. However they were finally home without any further loss in 45.4overs.