Opener Wasim Jaffer lived up to the national selectors’ faith in him by hitting a magnificent knock to guide West Zone to a six-wicket win against East Zone in the Deodhar Trophy here on Monday.

Jaffer, struggling to find form in recent times but retained in the Test squad, scored a 43-ball 48, aided by 10 fours, to stabilise the innings after a shaky start at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.

West erached the victory target of 226 in 39.2 overs for the loss of four wickets and collected five points after East Zone posted a competitive total of 225 in 49.2 overs. East Zone picked up a negative point for conceding the bonus point. Jaffer played some good shots and also managed good running between wickets during his stay in the middle after the loss of other opener Yusuf Pathan (6) when the score was seven. Ajinkya M Rahane also impressed with his well-made and valuable 60 off 72 balls. Abhishek Nayar remained unbeaten on 49 off 27 balls as West picked up the bonus point by reaching their target inside 40 overs.

Earlier, Saurabh Tiwary smashed 65 with the help of four fours and two towering sixes for East Zone. Arindam Das and captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla contributed 47 and 25 respectively.