Chasing West’s competitive 241, North crashed to 121 inside 36 overs to suffer their second loss in the tournament.

Like in their previous tie against Central, the North top-order once again came a cropper, losing their first three wickets with just two runs on the board, an improvement from Bangalore when they were zero for three.
Munaf Patel and Ajit Agarkar chipped away with two wickets apiece while Abhishek Nayar (2/18) and left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla (2/17) kept the pressure up.

Only four North batsmen managed double figures, Rajat Bhatia top-scoring with 35.

Earlier, Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma struck half-centuries for West before North fought back.

North did taste early success when Manpreet Gony sent back Yusuf Pathan and Ajinkya Rahane. Jaffer and Rohit added a brisk 138 for the third wicket before a twin strike brought North back into the match. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra got rid of Jaffer for 64 while Rohit (78) fell to Bhatia. Rohit hit nine fours and two sixes in his 97-ball knock and Jaffer hit seven fours.

SCORE BOARD
WEST ZONE: Yusuf Pathan c Kaul b Gony 5, Ajinkya Rahane c Malik b Gony 9, Wasim Jaffer c & b Mishra 64, Rohit Sharma st Kaul b Bhatia 78, Parthiv Patel c Kohli b Sehwag 19, Y Venugopala Rao c Kohli b Sehwag 14, Abhishek Nayar c Sangwan b Gony 10, Ajit Agarkar c Mishra b Gony 12, Iqbal Abdulla c Malik b Sehwag 5, Munaf Patel (not out) 0, Siddharth Trivedi c Bhatia b Sehwag 4. Extras (LB-3, W-16, NB-2) 21. Total (all out, 48.5 overs) 241.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-31, 3-169, 4-171, 5-200, 6-217, 7-220, 8-237, 9-237.

Bowling: Manpreet Gony 10-2-35-4, Vikramjeet Malik 9-0-46-0, Pradeep Sangwan 7-1-51-0, Rajat Bhatia 10-0-36-1, Amit Mishra 10-0-53-1, Virender Sehwag 2.5-0-17-4.

NORTH ZONE: Aakash Chopra lbw M Patel 0, Shikhar Dhawan c P Patel b Agarkar 1, Gautam Gambhir lbw Agarkar 1, Virat Kohli c & b Nayar 22, V Sehwag c Rahane b Trivedi 18, Rajat Bhatia c Pathan b M Patel 35, Udey Kaul c Rohit b Nayar 2, Amit Mishra b Abdulla 9, Pradeep Sangwan (run out) 7, Vikramjeet Malik c Agarkar b Abdulla 11, Manpreet Gony (not out) 0. Extras (B-1, LB-4, W-10) 15. Total (all out, 35.2 overs) 121.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-33, 5-79, 6-87, 7-101, 8-103, 9-116.

Bowling: Munaf Patel 8-0-16-2, Ajit Agarkar 8-2-31-2, Siddharth Trivedi 9-0-34-1, Abhishek Nayar 5-0-18-2, Iqbal Abdulla 5.2-2-17-2.