West Zone skipper Ajit Agarkar's all-round display helped his team register a huge 180-run victory, including a bonus point for the second match in a row, over South Zone in the Deodhar Trophy limited overs league match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, on Wednesday.
Batting first, the hosts managed a healthy 287 for seven in their stipulated 50 overs with Agarkar smashing an unbeaten 70 off just 44 balls with seven fours and three sixes.
Earlier, opening batsman Satyajit Parab (54 off 67 balls with five fours) and Niraj Patel (50 off 65 balls with three boundaries) added 76 runs off 15.3 overs after West Zone had lost two early wickets that of Dheeraj Jadhav (14) and Vinayak Mane (1).
Though the hosts were reduced to 159 for five off 35.4 overs at one stage, Agarkar took charge straight away adding 59 runs for the sixth wicket with Parthiv Patel (37 off 45 balls), who was lucky to be dropped three times.
N C Aiyappa floored Patel when on 12, then Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan dropped him on 24 and finally Y Venugopala Rao let him off when on 34 before being he the Gujarat stumper was run out.
Though Agarkar lost Ranjit Khirid immediately, he found an able partner in Yusuf Pathan (unbeaten 17 off 16 balls) and the two added 50 runs for the eighth wicket off just 4.4 overs, with 24 of those runs coming in last over of the innings bowled by Yohannan.
South's left arm spinner Sreekumar Nair took two for 42 while Yohannan, Aiyappa and off-spinner Venugopal Rao took a wicket each.
Spineless batting by South's batsmen was quite evident when they were reduced to 72 for seven off just 14.4 overs after being 65 for two off 11.3 overs.
With the West bowlers keeping a very good line and length and South's top order blown away by their seamers -- Agarkar, Khirid and Siddharth Trivedi -- the visitors surrendered tamely and were all out for 107 off 28.2 overs.
Though South's skipper V V S Laxman (8) got out to a beauty of delivery from West's most successful bowler Trivedi, other South batsmen simply threw away their wickets.
Laxman was forced to play the outswinger but only managed to snick it to Niraj Patel, who took a fine diving catch in the slips.
Opening batsmen Sivaramakrishnan (6) chased a delivery from Agarkar and snicked an easy catch to wicketkeeper Patel, who snapped up three catches, while Dinesh Kaarthick tried to glance a ball well outside the off stump to be adjudged leg before the wicket for 27 off Khirid.
Left hander S Sriram went for a big shot only to be caught by Agarkar at mid-on off Khirid after making 21 while Venugopal Rao was the last man to be out for 31 offering a simple catch to Niraj Patel, who took four catches, off Yusuf Pathan.
West's Trivedi took four for 40 while Agarkar and Khirid got two wickets apiece.
West Zone, who bundled out South in just 130 minutes, have ten points to their credit from two matches while South have four points from their win against Central Zone at Pune on Sunday.
Scoreboard:
West Zone
D Yadav c V V S Laxman b N C Aiyappa 14
S Parab c T Yahannan b Sreekumar Nair 54
V Mane c D Kaarthick b Yohannan 1
N Patel (run out) 50
A Muzumdar st Kaarthick b Sreekumar 11
P Patel (run out) 37
A Agarkar (not out) 70
R Khirid c Kaarthick b Y V Rao 0
Y Pathan (not out) 17
Extras (1-b, 8-lb, 9-w, 5-nb) 23
Total (for 7 wkts off 50 overs) 287
Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-51, 3-127, 4-141, 5-159, 6-218, 7-218.
Bowling: T Yohannan 10-0-65-1, Vishnuvardhan 5-0-23-0, N C Aiyappa 6-0-36-1, Y V Rao 10-0-60-1, Sreekumar Nair 10-0-42-2, S Sriram 9-0-52-0.
South Zone
V Sivaramakrishna c P Patel b A Agarkar 6
D Kaarthick lbw R Khirid 27
V V S Laxman c N Patel b S Trivedi 8
S Sriram c Agarkar b Khirid 21
Y V Rao c N Patel b Y Pathan 31
A Yadav c N Patel b Agarkar 0
S Badrinath c N Patel b Trivedi 1
Sreekumar c P Patel b Trivedi 0
Vishnuvardhan c V Mane b Trivedi 1
T Yohannan c P Patel b R Pawar 5
N C Aiyappa (not out) 1
Extras (1-lb, 4-w, 1-nb) 6
Total (all out off 28.2 overs) 107
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-23, 3-65, 4-66, 5-67, 6-72, 7-72, 8-88, 9-107.
Bowling: A Agarkar 7-1-28-2, S Trivedi 9-1-40-4, R Khirid 6-1-21-2, R Pawar 5-1-17-1, Y Pathan 1.2-1-0-1.
