East Zone produced a domineering performance to score a 142-run victory over Central Zone and lift the Deodhar Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in India's zonal limited-overs cricket tournament, at the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.
East rode on a scintillating 114 by opening batsman M S Dhoni to post a record 324 for four before a fine seam-spin combination of S Sanyal and Sourishish Lahiri helped them bundle out Central for 182 in 39.4 overs.
Central's chase was never on once they were reduced to 88 for four after 15 overs.
Railways' all-rounder J P Yadav resisted the East attack with a 65-ball 50 that included four boundaries.
Yadav contributed with an invaluable 41 runs for the fourth wicket with Devendra Bundela (29).
Bundela fought fire with fire, hitting six fours during his 24-ball knock, before medium pacer Laxmi Ratan Shukla bowled him.
Yadav then added 33 runs with Alind Naidu (13) for the fifth wicket, before being caught by R Satish off Lahiri.
Sanyal and Lahiri maintained superb line and length to fetch three wickets each.
Central, having earned three points from three matches, will play West on January 31 at Agartala to complete the league engagements.
Earlier, Nikhil Haldipur (52) and M S Dhoni (114, 12x4, 3x6) put on 108 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for East Zone's record total.
Both the openers confidently negotiated Central Zone attack, led by Sumit Mathur and J P Yadav, but Dhoni was more aggressive.
Haldipur, at the other end, gave Dhoni ample support before the former dragged a delivery from seamer C S Atram on to his stumps.
Haldipur's 52 came of 49 balls and was studded with ten hits to the fence.
Skipper Devang Gandhi joined Dhoni following Haldipur's dismissal but could not last long as he misread a delivery off J P Yadav and returned a simple catch to the bowler.
Gandhi scored 31, including four hits to the ropes, while facing 37 deliveries.
Central Zone, having earned three points from three matches, will play against West on January 31 at Agartala to complete the league chart.
Central used as many as six bowlers to restrict East Zone's onslaught but could not contain the free scoring Dhoni.
Dhoni and Kiran Pawar, who stepped in after Gandhi's departure, stitched 61 runs in a third wicket stand before Pawar holed out a simple catch to Yadav off Abbas Ali.
Pawar contributed 35 off 36 balls which included four fours.
Dhoni then put on 74 runs for the fourth wicket with Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who scored an unbeaten 55 off 50 balls with five boundaries.
East's total surpassed the previous highest of 320 for four in 47.4 over, scored by West Zone against East in 1999-2000.
Scoreboard
East Zone
Nikhil Haldipur b C S Atram 52
M S Dhoni c A Naidu b Sumit Mathur 114
Devang Gandhi c and b J P Yadav 31
Kiran Pawar c J P Yadav b Abbas Ali 35
L R Shukla not out 55
R Satish not out 17
Extras: (b-4, lb-6, nb-3, wb-7) 20
Total: (for 4 wkts in 50 overs) 324
Fall of wickets: 1-108, 2-147, 3-208, 4-282.
Bowling: Sumit Mathur 8-0-66-1, J P Yadav 10-0-69-1, C S Atram 4-1-30-1, Abbas Ali 10-0-50-1, Nikhil Chopra 10-1-51-0, Anoop Dave 8-0-48-0.
Central Zone
T P Singh run out 16
Gagan Khoda lbw S.Sanyal 20
Abbas Ali c D Gandhi b S.Sanyal 01
J P Yadav c R Satish b S.Lahiri 50
D Bundela b L R Shukla 29
Alind Naidu run out 13
Naman Ojha c Kiran Pawar b S.Lahiri 22
Nikhil Chopra c R Satish b S.Lahiri 11
Anoop Dave b Kiran Pawar 11
C S Atram not out 3
S Mathur b S Sanyal 1
Extras: (nb-3, w-2) 5
Total: (all out in 39.4 overs) 182
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-27, 3-47, 4-88, 5-121, 6-145, 7-161, 8-178, 9-180.
Bowling: S S Paul 7-0-47-0, S Sanyal 7.4-1-34-3, L R Shukla 6-0-33-1, A Chatterjee 6-0-28-0, S Lahiri 7-1-15-3, Kiran Pawar 6-0-25-1.
