Riyan Parag dished out an all-round show to help East Zone hand a crushing 88-run loss to North Zone in the Deodhar Trophy on Friday. Parag first struck a whirlwind 131 from 102 balls (5×4, 11×6) in a 235-run sixth wicket partnership with Kumar Kushagra (98 off 87b, 8×4, 4×6) to power East Zone to a huge 337 for eight in 50 overs after they opted to bat. In the second half of the game, Parag returned to grab 10-1-57-4 with his leg spin to cap an impressive all-round show.
He was well-supported by left arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed (3/41) as North Zone were bowled out for 249 in 45.3 overs. Mandeep Singh (50) was the top-scorer for North Zone, as several others failed to convert their starts. East Zone have won each of their three matches to collect 12 points, and are second to South Zone on net run rate.
Also Read: Deodhar Trophy: Kaverappa, Kishore shine as South Zone thrashes North East to go on Top
Earlier, Harshit Rana (3/54) struck twice in successive overs, while Mayank Yadav (4/63) too made life tough for East Zone batters to reduce them to 57/5 inside 16 overs. Riyan Parag then paired up with wicketkeeper-batter Kushagra to rescue the team in their entertaining partnership.
Kushagra however missed out on a deserving century by just two runs, while Riyan Parag also followed suit with Yadav picking both the wickets in three balls. Manisankar Murasingh then struck a couple of fours and a six in a 14-ball 25 to lift the total past 300-mark. Shahbaz also produced a quickfire seven-ball 16 not out (2×4, 1×6) to lift the total.
In reply, North Zone lost Prabhsimran Singh (11) early. But they had Abhishek Sharma (44), Himanshu Rana (40), Nitish Rana (27) and Shubham Rohilla (41) getting starts but none of them could carry on.
Riyan Parag was the wrecker-in-chief as he accounted for Rana, Mandeep and Rohilla among the specialist batters while also dismissing No 10 Sandeep Sharma (0).
Akash Deep, Mukhtar Hussain and Utkarsh Singh claimed one wicket apiece.
Brief Scores: East Zone 337/8; 50 overs (Riyan Parag 131, Kumar Kushagra 98; Mayank Yadav 4/63, Harshit Rana 3/54) beat North Zone 249; 45.3 overs (Mandeep Singh 50; Riyan Parag 4/57, Shahbaz Ahmed 3/41) by 88 runs.
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