Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Day 3 Round-up: East Zone remain unbeaten

Day 3 of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy saw some incredible hitting in both games as the East Zone continued their winning start to the tournament, while the heavily fancied North Zone lost their first game.

Jharkand's Ishank Jaggi's sublime 90 was the performance of the day as it helped his team chase down a tough total of 179. Despite strong performances by Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir, the North Zone fell to a team performance by the Central Zone who also took some remarkable catches.

round-ups

East Zone (Win) vs South Zone –

South Zone batted first and did well to post a commanding total of 178. Opener Mayank Agarwal dealt a huge chunk of the damage with a superb 72 off 36 with 9 fours and 3 sixes and he was superbly complimented by Vinay Kumar who surprisingly came in to bat at one down.

Catching the East completely off guard, captain Vinay Kumar scored a blistering 68 off 47 deliveries. However, he couldn’t cap off an all-round performance as he was taken for plenty of runs in his 4 overs.

Chasing 179, the East got off to a rocky start as openers Shreevats Goswami and Ishan Kishan fell for 25 and 7 respectively. 28-year-old Ishank Jaggi walked out to bat at one down and played a superb innings of 90 from 51 deliveries with 11 fours and 4 sixes.

Saurabh Tiwary’s handy 33 off 23 carried the East over the line and helped them win their second game on the bounce.

Central Zone (Win) vs North Zone –

Central Zone skipper Naman Ojha knew he was up for a big challenge while facing the heavily fancied North Zone that comprised the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra.

Batting first, his knock of 48 from 34 deliveries got his team off to a good start. However, he kept losing partners at the other end and the innings never really gathered steam. It wasn’t until Mahesh Rawat who came to bat at No.5 that he got any support. Mahesh scored an unbeaten 57 off 40 balls to take the team to 167.

Chasing 168, North Zone sent out their superstar left-handers Shikhar Dhawan and Gautam Gambhir who put together a tidy 48 run partnership. The innings was rocked when Akshay Warkare took a superb catch in the deep to dismiss Gambhir.

Yuvraj Singh’s 33 off 20 deliveries kept the North Zone in the game and they almost pulled off a miraculous win thanks to Manpreet Gony who scored 23 off 9 deliveries. Despite the last two balls going for six off Gony’s bat, they fell short by 4 runs.

Brief scores –

South Zone 178/6 in 20 overs (Mayank Agarwal 72, Vinay Kumar 68; Manoj Tiwary 3/31) lost to East Zone 181/4 in 19.4 overs (Ishank Jaggi 90, Saurabh Tiwary 33; Vijay Shankar 1/18) by 6 wickets.

Central Zone 167/7 in 20 overs (Mahesh Rawat 57*, Naman Ojha 48; Ashish Nehra 3/26) beat North Zone 163/6 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 37, Yuvraj Singh 33; Karn Sharma 3/17) by 4 runs.