South Zone clinch Deodhar Trophy title; Riyan misses ton, receives Player of the tournament award

PUDUCHERRY: In a dominant display, South Zone clinched the Deodhar Trophy title for the ninth time by defeating East Zone with a commanding 45-run win in the final in Puducherry on Thursday.

South Zone's opening batter, Rohan Kunnummal, played a sensational knock, scoring a rapid century off just 75 balls. His innings included four sixes and 11 fours, setting the stage for South Zone to pile up an imposing total of 328 for eight in their allotted overs.

In response, East Zone faced a challenging task as they faltered early, reaching 75 for four after 16 overs. The top order's struggle made the chase appear formidable.

Although East Zone's Riyan Parag and Kumar Kushagra tried to resurrect their team's innings with a brilliant 105-run partnership for the sixth wicket, their efforts fell short.

Despite Parag's impressive knock of 95 runs from 65 balls, featuring eight fours and five sixes, he fell agonizingly close to what would have been his third century in the competition.

Kushagra continued to fight, but with the loss of his wicket for 68 runs from 58 balls (including six fours and three sixes), South Zone ultimately emerged victorious. They bowled out East Zone for 283 runs in 46.1 overs.

Earlier in the first half, Mayank Agarwal called it right for South Zone to bat first, as their opening pair tore into the East Zone bowling attack right from the word go.

Agarwal (63 from 83 balls, 4x4s) took the backseat and watched his younger partner, Kerala's Kunnummal go ballistic with the bat.

The right-handed opener smacked his first ton of the competition after scores of 70 and 87 not out earlier, giving his side complete command. Kunnummal and Agarwal piled up 181 runs before they were separated, in the 25th over, but by then a strong platform had been set for South Zone.

Narayan Jagadeesan made a watchful 54 off 60 balls but no other South Zone batter could really impose themselves in the remainder of their innings.

Having won the Duleep Trophy final recently against the East Zone, this is South Zone's second national title in the span of a month. South Zone had won all of their five league round matches of Deodhar Trophy as well.

Later, Riyan Parag received the Player of the tournament award. He struck 354 runs from 5 matches at an average of 88.5 and took 11 wickets in the tournament.

Brief scores: North Zone 328/8 in 50 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 107, Mayank Agarwal 63, N Jagadeesan 54; Utkarsh Singh 2/50) beat East Zone 283 in 46.1 overs (Sudip Gharami 41, Riyan Parag 95, Kumar Kushagra 68; Washington Sundar 3/60) by 45 runs. Agencies

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