Purple patch: Riyan Parag’s unbeaten century set up a massive win for East.
| Photo Credit: Mayank Chaudhary
Riyan Parag’s century and Mani Shankar Mura Singh’s five-for helped East Zone defeat West Zone by 157 runs in the fifth-round match of the Deodhar Trophy played at CAP 2 ground here on Tuesday.
Mura Singh ran through the top-order in his opening spell to completely push West on the back-foot after Parag scored an unbeaten 102 off 68.
Opting to bat first, East openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Utkarsh Singh found boundaries regularly in PowerPlay before the former got caught behind off Arzan Nagwaswalla.
Utkarsh and number three Virat added 64 for the second wicket before left-arm spinner Shams Mulani got three as East lost four wickets in quick succession.
Parag walked into bat at number six and along with Kumar Kushagra added 150 runs in next 106 balls for the sixth wicket.
Running between the wickets was the highlight of the partnership. Parag scored his first boundary after facing 26 balls.
Kushagra too began coming down the track to find quick runs and smack four sixes as he ended up getting 53 off 47 balls.
East cruised past the 300-run mark and finished at 319 for seven. For West, Shams Mulani was the pick of the bowlers for West, getting three for 45.
In reply, Mura Singh got early movement with the new ball and ended up sending four batters back into the hut in his first spell and got his fifth in the second spell.
West opener Harvik had a new opening partner in Samarth Vyas since Priyank Panchal hurt his ankle while fielding, and only came into bat at 11 to help his number two reach a century.
While Harvik was scoring with ease, the others struggled to survive on a pitch that kept getting lower and slower and it was only a matter of time for East to finish the game. Harvik got out on 92 caught at deep-midwicket trying to hit a six as East closed the game in 34 overs.
East will face South on Thursday in the Siachem Ground.
The scores: East 319/7 in 50 overs (Riyan Parag 102 n.o., Kumar Kushagra 53, Utkarsh Singh 50, Shams Mulani 3/45) bt West 162 in 34 overs (Harvik Desai 92, Mani Shankar Mura Singh 5/28, Utkarsh Singh 3/16).