A buoyant North Zone side will look to derail an unbeaten East Zone as the teams face off at the Cricket Association Puducherry (CAP) Ground 3 in round three of the Deodhar Trophy here on Friday.
North banished the ghosts of a meek collapse in its opener against South Zone, with a 48-run victory versus Central Zone on Wednesday. Opener Prabhsimran Singh slammed a century and Nitish Rana added 51 to catapult North to 307, putting the side’s campaign back on track.
Mandeep Singh and Nishant Sindhu’s run-a-ball contributions in the middle order further reposed faith that the previous match’s collapse was merely a blip.
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With one eye on mending its net run rate, currently an underwhelming -1.950, North might opt to take the attack to its opposition again.
Doing so, however, will be an uphill task against an in-form bowling unit that has constructed two wins for East.
Manisankar Murasingh and Akash Deep’s new ball exploits have ensured East kept a cap on run-flow. The duo has claimed six wickets between them and struck in the death overs too.
Through the middle overs, Shahbaz Ahmed, who has picked five wickets in two games at 13.20, took over and further squeezed the neck of the opposition’s batting orders. The return of Riyan Parag proved a nifty addition against North East Zone. The part-time spinner ran through the middle-order to end up with four for 30 in 10 overs.
The East openers made light work of the targets handed to them. Against Central, it was Utkarsh Singh’s 89 runs that steered the team home, while versus North East, captain Abhimanyu Easwaran’s 102-ball 100 completed the triumph.
In the North camp, a different tale has unfolded for the bowlers. North leaked 303 runs against South, and though it bundled out Central for 259, it needed Nitish’s four for 48, yields the part-timer will not enjoy every time.
The spearheads, Sandeep Sharma and Mayank Markande, have failed to make a dent and have just two wickets to show for their efforts. Young guns Mayank Yadav and Harshit Rana have punched above their weights, but North will need its top guns firing to stay in contention for the title.
