Indian domestic calendar saw yet another tournament being played in 2023 after the Duleep Trophy which ended few weeks ago. The Deodhar Trophy made its comeback after 48 months. The entire tournament is being played in Puducherry in the 50 over format. The opening day of the tournament saw three matches being played. East Zone had beaten Central Zone, while West Zone had coasted to an easy win against North East Zone. The afternoon game saw South Zone the hosts take on North Zone in a lopsided contest.
The story as it happened β
Mayank Agarwal the South Zone skipper won the toss and chose to bat first. Both the teams had some known names. Youngsters like Rohan Kunnummal, Devdutt Padikkal and Washington Sundar were playing for the South Zone. For the North the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh and Nitish Rana were part of the XI.
Ricky Bhui flies to take a stunner β
South Zone batter, Ricky Bhui was on 31 off 38 balls when Mayank Yadav ran in to bowl. The 21 year old pacer bowled a short ball at 139 KPH which the batter tried to upper cut for a certain four. Thatβs when Singh flung himself in the air and grabbed a two handed stunner to send back the batter to the hut.
Ripper Alert π¨
β BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) July 24, 2023
You do not want to miss Prabhsimran Singh's flying catch behind the stumps π₯π₯
WATCH Now π₯π½ #DeodharTrophy | #NZvSZhttps://t.co/Tr2XHldbHY
South Zone post 303 on the board β
The home side got off to a flier thanks to the 117 run stand between Kunnummal and Agarwal which came in 17.3 overs. The youngster from Kerala scored 70 off 61 balls with 8 fours and 3 sixes. Agarwal was out for 64 off 68 balls with 7 fours, but the punishment wasnβt over for the North Zone bowlers. Jagadeesan who had a poor IPL came back to form with 72 off 66 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes as South Zone scored 303 from their 50 overs. Rishi Dhawan and Mayank Markande picked 2 wickets each for the North Zone team.
Kaverappa fifer blows North Zone away for mere 60 β
V. Kaverappa who has been turning heads with medium pace bowling, served another notice of his talents. The youngster from Karnataka picked 5/17 from his 6 overs to bowl out North Zone for 60. Mandeep Singh with 18 not out was the top scorer while Shubham Khajuria was the only other batter to reach double figures.