Central Zone thrash South to make final

The hurricane stand had the result in no doubt as Central Zone raced to 50 runs in 5.2 overs, 100 in 10.5 overs and 150 in just 14.5 after West skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar (122) and middle-order batsman Jacob Martin (102 not out) had hit fine centuries to prop up their team to a seemingly safe total on electing to bat.

Central Zone will now take on South Zone, which defeated North Zone by three wickets in the first semi-final, in the final on Thursday.

Yadav and Khurasia were in devastating form and thrashed West bowlers all around the wicket right from the word go. Khurasia was more offensive of the two as he cut, pulled and drove beautifully to reach his fifty in just 27 balls.

He was unfortunate to miss his century when he offered a simple catch to Martin at short mid-wicket off Rakesh Patel after making 86 off only 56 balls. His knock was studded with 14 fours and two towering sixes.

Meanwhile, Yadav reached his half-century off 36 balls that had eight boundaries in it and continued to plunder runs with new batsman Mohammed Kaif (51).

The duo showed no signs of relenting though the scoring rate came down sharply and added another 83 runs in 72 minutes for the second wicket.

Yadav, who was later declared man-of-the-match, continued in his customary fashion and brought up his hundred with the help of 14 fours but fell immediately thereafter to Kanitkar for 101 off just 84 deliveries.

Requiring 30 more runs to win, Kaif and Gagan Khoda completed the formalities remaining unbeaten on 51 and 16 respectively.

Earlier, Kanitkar and Martin pulled West out of early trouble when they lost both openers Wasim Jaffer (7) and Connor Williams (5) with just 16 runs on board.

The pair added 184 runs for the second wicket with each of them scoring a century – Kanitkar off 85 balls with the help of 12 fours and a six and Martin off 117 balls aided with 10 boundaries.

Kanitkar was finally out bowled by J P Yadav for 122 off 104 balls that contained 15 fours and two sixes.

Martin remained unbeaten on 102 and in the company of Iqbal Siddiqui (6 not out) took the score to 270 for four in their alotted 50 overs that ultimately was made to look very ordinary by Central Zone, who had eight Railways players in their ranks.

SCOREBOARD
West Zone C Williams b Salabh Srivasta 5, Wasim Jaffer run out (srivastava) 7, Hrisikesh Kanitkar b J P Yada 122, Jacob Martin not out 102, Robin Moris c Amay Khurasia b Salabh 16, Iqbal Siddique not out 6

Extras:(lb6,w6) 12; Total (for four wickets in 50 overs) 270

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Fall of wicket : 1-11, 2-16, 3-200, 4-242

Bowling: Sanjay Bangar 9-0-51-0, Salabh Srivastava 9-0-35-2, J P Yadav 10-0-65-1, Murali Kartik 10-0-39-0, Mohammad Kaif 2-0-16-0, Tejender Singh 10-0-58-0.

Central Zone J P Yadav c Morris b Kanitkar 101, A Khurasia c Martin b R Patel 86, M Kaif not out 51, G Khoda not out 16

Extras (lb3, nb10, w7) 20

Total (for 2 wkts in 40.4 overs) 274

Fall of wickets: 1-158, 2-241.

Bowling: I Siddiqui 6-3-35-0, P Mhambrey 3-0-32-0, S Saxena 3-0-22-0, H Kanitkar 10-0-64-1, R Morris 4-0-34-0, R Patel 6-0-43-1, N Patel 5.4-0-31-0, J Martin 3-0-10-0.