Winning the toss, East Zone chose to bat first, and their decision was vindicated as the bowlers, led by Riyan Parag, put up an excellent performance, restricting North East Zone to a mere 169 runs.
Chasing the target, East Zone’s Abhimanyu took charge and displayed his batting prowess, scoring an unbeaten century. He reached his century off 102 balls, hitting 13 boundaries in the process. This was his eighth List A hundred, confirming his consistency as a batter.
East Zone completed the chase comfortably in just 31.3 overs, thanks to Abhimanyu’s outstanding innings. With this win, East Zone secured their second consecutive victory in the tournament, earning 8 points and climbing to the second position on the points table.
Despite having the same number of points as South Zone, East Zone currently sits in the second position due to South Zone’s superior net run rate (NRR) of 2.526 compared to East Zone’s NRR of 1.107.
Abhimanyu’s batting was especially harsh on Sikkim off-spinner Lee Yong Lepcha, whom he smashed for 21 runs in just 11 balls, including three boundaries. Lepcha managed to take two wickets in the match, dismissing Utkarsh Singh and Parag.
The partnership between Abhimanyu and Utkarsh proved to be crucial, as they put up a solid opening stand of 93 runs in 19.3 overs, setting the tone for East Zone’s comfortable victory in the match.
Parag was dismissed cheaply for 13 in the 22nd over, but that only boosted East’s desire to step on the pedal and boost their net run rate.
Abhimanyu and Virat Singh amassed 61 runs for the unbeaten third wicket in just over nine overs.
Earlier, Parag, whose niche area is hard-hitting, took four wickets with his leg spin.
Parag’s four for 30 ensured that North East never really gained any momentum in their innings.
The lone point of steadiness for North East was a 55-run partnership between Rex Rajkumar Singh (65, 74 balls, 10×4) and Lepcha for the eighth wicket.
It lifted North East from a lowly 82 for 7 to a more respectable total, but a vastly insufficient one.
Brief scores: North East Zone: 169 all out in 48 overs (Rex Rajkumar Singh 65 not out; Riyan Parag 4/30, Mukhtar Hussain 2/20) lost to East Zone: 170/2 in 31.3 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 100 not out, Utkarsh Singh 29; Lee Yong Lepcha 2/34) by 8 wickets.
(With PTI inputs)
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