West Zone beat North Zone by 133 runs to lift the BCCI Prof D B Deodhar Trophy in the 2014 season at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. After Kedar Devdhar and Cheteshwar Pujara set up the match in West Zone's favour, their bowlers skittledNorth Zone out for 148 runs to claim victory.
Devdhar set the tone of the innings by hitting SiddarthKaul for three consecutive boundaries in the second over, after WZ opted to bat first. But with 37 runs on the board, Parthiv Patel top-edged Rishi Dhawan to point and departed for 13. Captain Cheteshwar Pujara then came to the crease and dropped anchor, while Devdhar continued to milk the bowlers. Collecting singles along with the odd boundary, the pair stitched a 144-run partnership and laid a solid foundation. Beaten a few times, Pujara had taken his time in the middle and played the supporting role. The partnership was eventually ended by Ashish Nehra, who trapped the opener six runs short of his century. With Ambati Rayudu at the other end, Pujara took on the bowlers. He struck Kaul for a six over long-on and a boundary later in the over. But after claiming 12 runs from the over, he was bowled by Dhawan for 75.
At 214 for three, with a little over seven overs left in the innings, the big-hitting Yusuf Pathan then came out to the middle and capitalised on the platform laid by the top-order batsmen. The Rayudu-Yusuf pair added 67 runs in an unbroken stand. Rayudu remained unbeaten on 46 off 39 balls, while Yusufremained not out on 32. During his 21-ball cameo, Yusuf smashed Ishant Sharma and Nehra for a six each as WZ galloped to a comfortable 281 for three.
Chasing the stiff target,Nitin Saini went after the West Zone bowlers from the word go. He began by hitting Jaydev Unadkat for a couple of boundaries in the first over to help claim 11 runs from it. Gambhir played a more subdued innings as the openers put up 48 runs on the board until JaspritBumrah ended the partnership. The pacer castled Gambhir for 11 and set the ball rolling. The West Zone bowlers created breakthroughs at regular intervals and did not allow partnerships to flourish. Three overs later, Dhawal Kulkarni was edged to the slips by Saini.
The departure of the openers triggered a collapse, which took the game away from North. Six runs later, RajatPaliwal edged Unadkat to the wicketkeeper and ParvezRasool soon followed him back. Gurkeerat Singh contributed four before Akshar Patel's arm-ball disrupted his woodwork. Two runs later, top-order batsman, Mandeep Singh's resistance was felled. Stepping out to ArpitVasavda, Mandeep found his bails ripped off by Parthiv. Rishi Dhawan too returned edging the ball to the 'keeper, leaving the team reeling on 110 for seven. With the game slipping away from them, NZ captain Harbhajan Singh was run out for 14.And 20 runs later, Nehra followed him back; castled by Vasavda. In his next over, Vasavda claimed Ishant Sharma to wrap up the North Zone innings.
Each of the West Zone bowlers chipped in to claim a comprehensive victory. Vasavda claimed three wickets, while Akshar picked two and the rest of the bowlers took one wicket each.
