Himanshu spurs North to title win

On a dramatic final day of the four-day encounter at the Chinnaswamy stadium, West appeared to have all the aces at the start but North fought back splendidly, first through left-arm spinner Sunny Sherawat, who took six for 49 and then through their batsmen to complete am excellent come-from-behind victory.

West had begun Friday on 155 for five, looking to build on their overall lead of 202 but were emphatically pegged back by Sherawat, who struck a purple patch. Consequently, West could manage no more than 29 runs more in the morning before being bowled out for 184. Nikunj Mohite, overnight 62, had carried most of their hopes but once he fell after adding just six more, the bottom caved in meekly as Sherawat ran riot.

That left West with an overall lead of 231 and necessitated North to score the second highest total of the match if they had to make light of a 47-run first-innings deficit and pull off an unlikely victory. North were rocked early in their run-chase as Jaydev Unadkat
fired out openers Mukul Dagar ad Anil Sihag with just five on the board in the third over.

That united Chawla and skipper Mandeep in the middle, and the pair took it upon itself to steady the ship.

By the time the captain was dismissed, the pair had realised 159 (124m, 200b). Chawla found another able ally in Sumit Verma (40 n.o., 63m, 48b, 5x4) as 56 came for the fourth wicket in 65 minutes off 70 deliveries.

Brief scores: ZCA West: 271 all out in 104 overs and 184 all out in 82.4 overs (Nikunj Mohite 68, Manprit Juneja  28; Gurinder Singh 2-36, Sunny Sherawat 6-49) lt to ZCA North: 224 all out in 94.5 overs and 235/4 in 49.3 overs (Himanshu Chawla 109, Mandeep Singh 74, Sumeet Verma 40 n.o.; Jaydev Unadkat 3-54).