Half centuries from Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Ajay Jadeja steered star-packed North Zone to a facile 87-run victory over West Zone in a crucial tie in the Deodhar Trophy limited overs league tournament in Baroda on Tuesday.
Yuvraj cracked 74 off only 72 balls with ten fours, opener Gambhir made a sedate 59 in 73 balls while veteran Jadeja made a composed 54 in 64 balls to help North post an imposing 288 for 9 in 50 overs after being put in to bat.
India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan was the pick of the West bowlers taking 3 for 47 and also fielded smartly to effect three run outs at the IPCL ground.
In reply, West found the going tough against the spinning ball and were bundled out for a paltry 201 in 42.5 overs with left arm Dinesh Mongia (3 for 43) and off spinner Harbhajan Singh (2 for 30) cutting a swathe.
Amit Bhandari, Joginder Sharma and North skipper Virender Sehwag picked up a wicket apiece to help their side gain five points, including a bonus digit, which helped the victors draw level on ten points with the vanquished with the final round of matches coming up on February 4.
For West, India discard Parthiv Patel again showed his fighting qualities by battling his way to 56 off 61 balls with five fours and a six, but his effort was in vain as North romped home with a fair degree of comfort.
West, who were well in sight of denying North the bonus point at 160 for four, lost their last six wickets in a heap for 41 runs and were unable to reach that target of 231.
This was North's second win in this city, having earlier beaten East Zone by 7 wickets at the Motibaug Palace ground.
EAST WIN
In the other match, wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni played a blistering knock of 87 to steer East Zone to a four-wicket win over Central Zone in a high-scoring tie in the Deodhar Trophy limited overs league tournament in Rajkot.
Dhoni smashed the ball around to hit 13 fours and a six in his 68-ball blitz.
Rohan Gavaskar (unbeten 89 off 79 balls with 9 fours and a six) and Laxmi Ratan Shukla (60 in 58 balls with 6 fours) chipped in nicely as East successfully overhauled Central's tall score with an over to spare by making 348 for six.
Earlier, Central's Suresh Raina and Abbas Ali cracked centuries after skipper Mohd Kaif won the toss and chose to bat first and guided their side to an imposing 346 for 8 in 50 overs.
The two batsmen rescued Central after they lost three wickets, including that of Kaif (14), within the first ten overs with a double century stand for the fourth wicket which was worth exactly 200 runs and in 179 balls.
Rana struck four sixes and 14 fours in his 104-ball 129, while Ali made 100 off 103 balls with 12 fours and one six. J P Yadav (43) and Jyoti Yadav (22) provided useful contributions in the end.
Sanjib Sanyal of Bengal was East's most successful bowler with a four-wicket haul.
East Zone, who had minus 2 points in their kitty before the match, secured four points to take their overall points to plus 2 at the end of their league engagements
