Tags:
Journalism of Courage
LUCKNOW, DECEMBER 21: The glorious uncertainties of cricket once again came to the fore as the pulsating Deodhar Trophy final between Central and South Zones ended in a tie here on Thursday with both teams declared joint winners.
Needing 11 runs from the last over, the last pair of Venkatpathy Raju and Balaji Rao scored 10 from the first five balls with Raju hitting a six off the third to take South tantanlisingly close to the target of 299 runs before he ran himself out off the last ball going for the non-existent winning run.
South Zone were all out for 298 in reply to the same score for eight wickets by Central Zone, who were sent in to bat by South skipper Robin Singh in the morning. Central captain Amay Khuarasia once again played a cameo knock of 86 to lift the team to an impressive total but an equally fine knock of 91 runs by V V S Laxman nullified the effort as South almost overtook the target. South Zone started their run-chase on a steady note with Arun Kumar and Amit Pathak putting up 51 runs for the opening wicket. But their ploy of sending Dodda Ganesh at the fall of Arun Kumar (21) fell flat when he got out for a ’duck’ while just one run was added to the total. Pathak, who was gaining in strength, was run out for 47 with South in slight trouble at 98 for three before Laxman took control to anchor his side to safety. Laxman added 59 runs for the fourth wicket with S Sharath (31) and another 56 runs for the seventh wicket with L Prasad Reddy (30) to keep his team in sight of victory. But a spate of run-outs in theclosing overs saw South getting reduced at 258 for nine after Murali Kartik claimed the prized wicket of Laxman, whose 91 included six hits to the fence.With all hopes of a win virtually lost, Balaji Rao and Raju batted a heroically.
SCOREBOARD
Central zone J P Yadav lbw b Ganesh 10, Rahul Kanwath c Reddy b Kumaran 13, Amay Khurasia c&b Bhardwaj 86, Gagan Khoda st Reddy b Raju 34, Mohammed Kaif c Laxman b Kumaran 41, Raja Ali c Reddy b Robin Singh 41, Devendra Bundela not out 27, Ankit Srivastava run out 12, Murali Kartik c&b Ganesh 0, Zakir Hussain not out 0; Extras: (b7, lb9, nb4, w14) 34; Total (for 8 wickets in 50 overs) 298
Bowling: D Ganesh 10-0-53-2, T Kumaran 9-0-42-2, V Bharadwaj 6-0-42-1, Robin Singh 8-0-47-1, V Raju 9-0-52-1, Balaji Rao 8-0-47-0.
SOUTH ZONE J Arun Kumar c Kanwath b Zakir Hussain 21, Amit Pathak run out 47, D Ganesh b salabh 0, VVS Laxman c Khurasia b Kartik 91, S Sarath c&b Kartik 31, Vijay Bhardwaj run out 6, Robin Singh st Ankit b Kaif 15, L P Reddy run out 30, T Kumaran run out 0, Balaji Rao not out 31, V Raju run out 10; Extras: (b1, lb7, w5, nb3) 16;Total(all out in 50 overs) 298
Bowling: Zakir Hussain 7-0-44-1, Salabh Srivastava 10-0-61-1, Murali Kartik 10-0-58-2, J P Yadav 8-0-58-0, R Kanwath 10-0-38-0, M Kaif 5-0-31-1.
