Deodhar Trophy: Prabhsimran Singh, Nitish Rana power North Zone to 48-run win over Central Zone | Cricket News – Times of India

Prabhsimran, the wicketkeeper-batter, was in exceptional form, smashing 121 runs off just 107 balls to power North Zone to an imposing total of 307 for 8. In response, Central Zone faced a challenging task of chasing down 309 runs.
Central Zone suffered an early setback as opener Madhav Kaushik was dismissed for 6 by pacer Harshit Rana in the second over, leaving the team at 7 runs on the scoreboard.

However, Shivam Chaudhary and Yash Dubey steadied the innings with a solid 99-run partnership for the second wicket. Spinner Nishant Sindhu eventually removed Chaudhary for 51 runs off 60 balls in the 20th over.
Dubey then combined forces with Upendra Yadav, and the duo added a valuable 91-run partnership for the third wicket. Central Zone seemed to be in a decent position until pacer Mayank Yadav dismissed Upendra for 52 runs off 55 balls in the 35th over, triggering some anxiety for the batting side.
In the subsequent over, Dubey departed, scoring an impressive 78 runs off 92 balls but falling victim to Rana’s lbw delivery. Dubey’s innings was adorned with 10 fours, most of them coming through the cover region.
With Central Zone struggling at 198 for 5 in the 36th over, skipper Venkatesh Iyer and Karn Sharma stitched together a 38-run partnership for the sixth wicket, attempting to revive the chase.
However, Harshit Rana accounted for Karn’s wicket in the 43rd over, dismissing him for 23 runs, after which Central’s fight started to wane. They couldn’t recover from the setbacks and eventually fell short of the target.
In the end, Rana’s all-round performance and Prabhsimran’s impressive century guided North Zone to a well-deserved victory, leaving Central Zone with a defeat in the Deodhar Trophy encounter.

Earlier, Central won the toss and invited North to bat. While opener Abhishek Sharma fell in the 11th over for 19 to Iyer at the score of 36, Prabhsimran looked in solid touch.
He stitched together an 87-run partnership for the second wicket with Harshit and a 67-run stand for the third wicket with Nitish as North got a move on.
Prabhsimran’s 121 included 13 fours and five sixes at a strike rate of 113.08, dominating the cover and point region.
He was dismissed in the 34th over by leg-spinner Karn, reducing North to 200 for 3. From that point, Nitish and Mandeep Singh added 63 runs for the fourth wicket before the alliance was broken after an unfortunate run out of the former for 51.
North failed to come up with enough convincing partnerships thereon, but did manage to post a formidable total of 307/8.
Yash Thakur and Iyer were the star performers for Central with the ball, bagging a couple of wickets each.
Brief scores: North Zone: 307/8 in 50 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 121, Nitish Rana 51; Venkatesh Iyer 2/50) beat Central Zone: 259 in 47.4 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 51, Yash Dubey 78, Upendra Yadav 52; Nitish Rana 4/48) by 48 runs.
(With PTI inputs)