Akash Chopra guides
North to victory

North Zone beat Central Zone by seven wickets on the last day of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket match in Indore on Friday.

Akash Chopra remained not out on 69 and Mithun Manhas was on 20 at the other end.

Resuming at the overnight score of 26 for one, Chopra and Sangram Singh added 81 runs for the second wicket, thus making the job of accomplishing victory easy for the rest.

However, Sangram Singh was caught behind by Rohit Jhalani off Narendra Hirwani when North were at 85, and later Shafiq Khan was caught by Yere Gouda off Kulmani Parida at 87.

But, with Chopra and captain Manhas's efforts the team achieved a seven-wicket victory to earn eight points from the match. Central got none.

J P Yadav, Kulamani Parida and Hirwani claimed a wicket each, as North hit up the 137 runs needed in 29.1 overs.

South Zone-East Zone match ends in draw

The four-day Duleep Trophy league match between South Zone and East Zone ended in a draw in Bangalore on Friday.

On the concluding day, the match started three hours late due to wet conditions of the pitch following overnight showers.

East Zone, resuming at 25 for one, declared their second innings at 141 for the loss of three wickets with about 14 mandatory overs to be played.

Both captains then agreed to call off the match.

By virtue of gaining the first innings lead, South Zone got five points, to take their tally to 11. East Zone got three and took their tally to 14.

The highlights of the day's play were an unbeaten 66 by Rashmi Ranjan Parida and Sanjay Raul's 50.

Parida, overnight 13, made the runs with the help of ten fours and a six.

S Das remained not out on six.

Brief Scores: East Zone 398 and 141 for three declared.
South Zone: 419.

Mail Cricket Editor