The West batsmen came up with a commanding performance, amassing 272 after being stuck in by South skipper S Badrinath. In reply, South could dominate only in pockets, finishing at 246 when they were bowled out with two balls to spare. West garnered 13 points from the event and ended up second behind champions Central.
The secret behind West’s smooth win was that they did not treat the match as a mere academic outing. That attitude was evident in the way openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane started proceedings. R Vinay Kumar was at his niggardly best, but his new-ball partner D Kalyana Krishna was erratic, and the West openers cashed in on the freebies offered by the Andhra pace bowler with glee. Parthiv enjoyed a let-off when Robin Uthappa grassed a sitter at first slip off Vinay with the batsman on 15.
Rahane’s dismissal, miscuing a pull off Vinay to mid-wicket, slowed down West’s scoring rate marginally. But Rohit Sharma, first in the company of Parthiv and later with Y Venugopala Rao, brought the steam back with some sensible strokeplay.
Supreme touch
Rohit was in supreme touch from the word go, his cover drive off the first ball off Vinay portending to a bigger innings than the eventual 33. The Mumbaikar spooned a return catch to left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, and the umpires upheld the appeal after a short parley. At 132 for five, South might have fancied their chances, but Abhishek Nayar snuffed out South’s hopes with a matured knock of 90 (91b, 6x4, 2x6).
The left-hander does not belong to the elegant breed, but he is an industrious batsman who likes to accumulate runs within his limitations. First he steadied the innings with Yusuf Pathan before Vinay latched on to a brilliant return catch to dismiss the latter. But Nayar found a solid ally in his skipper Ajit Agarkar, the duo milking 66 runs for the seventh wicket to carry West past 200. With Nayar slipping into overdrive, West racked in 72 runs in the last 10 overs.
Solid platform
South needed a solid platform to mount a meaningful chase and a lot depended on Uthappa. But with the Kodava lad looking completely disinterested in the proceedings, those hopes never materialised and his agonising stay in the middle was ended when he snicked Agarkar to Parthiv behind the stumps.
Skipper Badrinath tried to marshall the troops with a responsible fifty, but none of the other South batsmen appeared to have a heart for a fight.  Rahane produced a super direct hit from gully to dismiss Badrinath and signal the end of South’s fight. Meaty blows of Arjun Yadav and Y Gnaneshwar Rao’s only helped to delay the inevitable.

SCOREBOARD

WEST ZONE: Parthiv Patel c Vidyut b Sarvesh Kumar 29 (48b, 3x4), Ajinkya Rahane c Ojha b Vinay Kumar 20 (26b, 1x4), Rohit Sharma c&b Ojha 33 (48b, 4x4), Y Venugopala Rao b Gnaneshwar Rao 24 (36b, 4x4); Abhishek Nayar c Vidyut b Vinay 90 (91b, 6x4, 2x6), Pinal Shah c&b Gnaneshwar Rao 0 (1b), Yusuf Pathan c&b Vinay 11 (15b, 2x4), Ajit Agarkar 24 (30b, 1x6, 1x4), Mohnish Parmar c Gnaneshawar b Ojha 4 (2b, 1x4), Siddharth Trivedi c Gnaneshawar b Kalyan Krishna 9 (10b, 1x4), Munaf Patel (not out) 2 (3b); Extras (LB-7, W-19) 26; Total (all out in 49.5 overs) 272.
Fall of Wickets: 1-49 (Rahane), 2-67 (Parthiv), 3-105 (Venugopala), 4-131 (Rohit), 5-132 (Pinal), 6-165 (Yusuf), 7-231 (Nayar), 8-236 (Parmar), 9-269 (Agarkar).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 9.5-1-43-3, D Kalyan Krishna 9-0-64-2 (w-3), PM Sarvesh Kumar 7-0-32-1 (w-3), Y Gnaneshwar Rao 10-0-54-2 (w-6), Pragyan Ojha 10-1-43-2, Robin Uthappa 4-0-29-0 (w-7).
Scoring Pattern: 5 overs: 27/0, 10: 47/0, 15: 68/2, 20: 99/2, 25: 105/3, 30: 139/5, 35: 168/6, 40: 200/6, 45: 231/7, End of Innings: 272 all out in 49.5 overs.
Runs during Power Plays: Power Play 1: 1-10: 47/0, Power Play 2: 11-15: 21/2, Power Play 3: 16-20: 31/0 (3 men out).
SOUTH ZONE: Robin Uthappa c Parthiv b Agarkar 9 (17b), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan c&b Munaf 19 (37b, 4x4); Murali Vijay c Parthan b Trivedi 15 (19b, 2x4), Subramaniam Badrinath (run out) 64 (81b, 3x4), Dinesh Kaarthick lbw Pathan 25 (46b, 2x4), Arjun Yadav c Rohit b Agarkar 39 (39b, 4x4), Y Gnaneshwar Rao c Munaf b Trivedi 29 (22b, 2x6), R Vinay Kumar c Parthiv b Munaf 1 (5b), Pragyan Ojha (run out) 10 (11b, 1x4), D Kalayan Krishna b Trivedi 8 (9b, 1x4), PM Sarvesh Kumar (not out) 7 (11b), Extras (LB-3, W-17) 20, Total (all out in 49.4 overs) 246.
Fall of wickets: 1-28 (Uthappa), 2-49 (Vijay), 3-51 (Vidyut), 4-118 (Kaarthick), 5-179 (Arjun), 6-198 (Badrinath), 7-210 (Vinay), 8-217 (Gnaneshwar), 9-236 (Kalyan Krishna).
Bowling: Munaf Patel 9-1-33-2 (w-3), Ajit Agarkar 9-0-46-2 (w-3), Siddharth Trivedi 9.4-0-38-3 (w-2), Abhishek Nayar 3-0-21-0 (w-1), Mohnish Parmar 10-0-55-0, Yusuf Pathan 6-1-26-1 (w-2), Y Venugopala Rao 3-0-24-0 (w-6).
Scoring Pattern: 5 overs: 27/0, 10: 45/1, 15: 57/3, 20: 78/3, 25: 108/3, 30: 128/3, 35: 151/4, 40: 185/5, 45: 217/7, End of Innings: 246 all out in 49.4 overs.
Runs during Power Play: Power Play 1: 1-10: 48/1, Power Play 2: 11-15: 9/3, Power Play 3: 16-20: 21/0 (3 men out).