South Zone sets 271-run target for East Zone

Ahmedabad, Feb 26 (UNI) Powered by Swapnil Asnodkar's ton, South Zone set up a tough target of 271 runs in 50 overs for East Zone set up a in the second day-night one-day match of the Deodhar Trophy at the Sardar Patel Gujarat stadium here today.

Swapnil's knock of 107 runs in equal number of balls was well supported by skipper V V S Laxman (35). Swapnil and Laxman made valuable 89 runs for the second wicket in 15.4 overs.

Earlier, East Zone skipper Deep DasGupta won the toss and elected to field. But his decision was proved wrong as South Zone openers Swapnil and Barrington Rowland made an electric start with powerful hittings. Another good partnership of 73 runs between Swapnil and Venugopal Rao in 14 overs set the South Zone on way to a big score.

However, when the total was 194 runs, Venugopal Rao gave a simple return catch to S Singh with his individual score reading 30.

South Zone received another jolt when Swapnil ballooned a sweepshot off Abhishek Jhunjhunwala delivery at square leg which was gladly accepted by Divakar. In his 107-run knock, Swapnil had 14 hits to the fence.

At this point, South Zone, eyeing the magical figure of 300 runs, lost some quick wickets to finally end up at 270 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 50 overs.

For East zone, Ranadeb Bose and S Singh took two wickets each while S S Paul, M Diwakar and Jhunjhunwala took one wicket each.

UNI