da 888casino： Taking 20 wickets in less than a day, West Zone trounced East Zone by aninnings and 363 runs with more than a day to spare in their Duleep Trophyleague match at the Nehru stadium in Pune on Saturday
Staff Reporter03-Feb-2001Taking 20 wickets in less than a day, West Zone trounced East Zone by aninnings and 363 runs with more than a day to spare in their Duleep Trophyleague match at the Nehru stadium in Pune on Saturday. With this, West Zonecompleted their engagements with 17 points and await the result of theCentral Zone-South Zone clash to know their fate in the competition. IfCentral Zone defeats South Zone, they will finish runners-up with 19points. If Central Zone get only five points, then West Zone will take thesecond spot in the tournament, already won by North Zone.If Indian medium pacer Ajit Agarkar routed East Zone in the first innings,former Indian leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule laid them low in the secondinnings. While Agarkar, with five for 22, was instrumental in bowling outEast Zone for 132 the first time around, the 28-yearold Bahutule broughtthe match to a swift end by taking six for 49 including a hat-trick andbowling out East Zone for 161 in the second innings.East Zone’s capitulation was surprising considering that they started theday at 50 for no loss in the face of West Zone’s imposing first inningstotal of 656 for seven declared. Once the opening stand between skipperShiv Sundar Das (38) and SZ Suffri (27) was broken at 55, the rest of thebatting simply caved in. Three wickets fell with the score on 88 as Agarkarwas on a hat-trick after dismissing Das and Sukhbinder with successivedeliveries. Only a last wicket partnership of 27 between Utpal Chaterjee(18 not out) and J Zaman (1), the next best after the opening stand and thefact that West Zone conceded as many as 28 extras, boosted the East Zonetotal to 132.East Zone fared no better the second time around. This time their topscorer was RR Parida with 41. He faced only 48 balls, hitting seven foursand a six. But the rest of the batting fumbled against Bahutule. WhereAgarkar failed, Bahutule succeeded. He removed Sanjay Raul and SukhbinderSingh with the fifth and sixth balls of an over and then with the firstball of his next, completed an unusual hat-trick by having P Jai Chandraleg before. It was only the second such feat in the competition, the previous being notched up by Kapil Dev for North Zone against West Zone in the 1978-79 final.