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Player of the Match
Player of the Match

Ojha fifty nudges Central into semis

Central Zone 198 for 8 (N Ojha 65*) beat East Zone 194 (Deobrat 39, Chawla 5-38) by two wickets
Scorecard

Naman Ojha's unbeaten 65 guided Central Zone to a win in a tricky chase against East Zone in the quarterfinals of the Deodhar Trophy.

Central were floundering at 82 for 5 in the 18th over, losing their middle order to Rahul Shukla and Laxmi Ratan Shukla who struck in successive overs. Ojha then steadied the innings, stitching partnerships with Piyush Chawla (24) and Karn Sharma (22). His 84-ball innings, which contained seven fours and two sixes, enabled Central to chase down the target in 43 overs.

Earlier Chawla's five-for, which included a spell in which he struck in four successive overs, restricted East Zone to 194 after they had chosen to bat.

The only substantial partnership East managed in their 46.2-over long innings was the 39-run stand between Kumar Deobrat and Laxmi Shukla for the sixth wicket. The pair took the side to 141 for 5 but once Shukla was out, the lower order could offer little resistance, losing their last four wickets to Chawla for 24 runs .

Central Zone 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st26FY FazalJalaj S Saxena
2nd19SU ShrivastavaJalaj S Saxena
3rd35NV OjhaSU Shrivastava
4th1NV OjhaM Rawat
5th1NV OjhaAD Nath
6th43NV OjhaPP Chawla
7th47NV OjhaKV Sharma
8th0NV OjhaAnureet Singh
9th26NV OjhaIC Pandey