Deodhar Trophy: West Zone looks to ride out middle-order woes, North eyes consistency as race for final heats up

With the race for a spot within the Deodhar Trophy closing intensifying, North Zone faces West Zone in an important fourth-round match on the Siechem Stadium in Puducherry on Sunday.

While West has its fortunes in its palms with two wins in three video games, North has ceded its mandate to different groups, having gained just one sport in its marketing campaign up to now. It is at present fourth within the six-team desk and has a slender probability of creating the summit conflict.

Priyank Panchal’s males enter the conflict after pulling off an exhilarating heist towards Central Zone, rising victorious by only one wicket on Friday.

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The workforce suffered a middle-order collapse for the second time in succession after a 12-run loss to South Zone in spherical three, the place half the facet perished beneath 100 in a 206-run chase. 

However, towards Central, Atit Sheth’s run-a-ball fifty, Rajvardhan Hangargekar’s quickfire knock (24 off 12), and Chintan Gaja’s useful lower-order contribution helped West snatch 4 useful factors.

Domestic heavyweights Ankeet Bawane, Sarfaraz Khan and Rahul Tripathi, the spine of West’s batting, have been mercurial. While Sarfaraz has seemed good in patches, Bawane and Tripathi have didn’t spend time within the center.

Captain Panchal, nevertheless, can be happy with the workforce’s bowling efficiency. In all three video games, greater than 5 bowlers have added a wicket to their title, demonstrating the workforce’s wide selection of choices with the ball.

Contrastingly, issues have been tough for Nitish Rana’s facet after dropping two essential encounters.

The workforce’s imbalance throughout departments has emerged as a cause for its letdown within the match.

While younger seamers Mayank Yadav and Harshit Rana have shared the heavy load of the wicket-taking duties, the skilled duo of Sandeep Sharma and Mayank Markande have been out of contact.

Sandeep conceded 89 runs in his 10-over quota towards East Zone, whereas Markande went for 73 in his eight. They have solely accounted for 4 wickets collectively whereas leaking 294 runs in 49 overs at a regarding mixed strike charge of 73.5.

North’s batting has additionally been inconsistent. It was bundled out for 60 by South in its marketing campaign opener, the bottom complete ever within the match, however bounced again with a 300-plus complete towards Central on the again of an attacking Prabhsimran Singh (121 off 107) hundred, earlier than struggling towards a potent East bowling assault throughout a 338-run chase.

West will look to beat a middle-order conundrum and North will attempt for consistency because the winner of this contest will take a big step within the route of subsequent week’s closing.