Riding on an unbeaten 95 runs by Gautam Gambhir, North Zone coasted to a seven-wicket victory over Central Zone in the third match of the Deodhar Trophy tournament, at the Sardar Patel stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, on Tuesday.

Gambhir, who opened the innings, glued together a 142-run partnership for the third wicket with Shikar Dhawan (51) and guided the team to victory with 16 overs to spare as Central Zone slumped to its second consecutive loss in the tournament.

Central, which had lost to West Zone by three wickets on Sunday, crumbled again this afternoon in the day-and-night encounter and managed to score only 195 runs before being all out in 47 overs.

With today's comprehensive win North Zone jumped to the top of the points table with five points, which includes a bonus point.

Needing just 3.92 runs per over, North Zone opener Karan Goel (9) was dismissed early by R P Singh in the seventh over.

Skipper Dinesh Mongia (18) who came into bat at the fall of Karan's wicket, struck three consecutive boundaries in R P Singh's same over before being dismissed by a brilliant diving catch by rival skipper Mohammed Kaif in first slip off Pankaj Singh.