Deodhar Trophy final 2014 preview

Deodhar Trophy 2014 final preview: India will experience yet another exciting match in the domestic stage as the East Zone takes on the West Zone in the ongoing  Deodhar trophy 2014 finals. West Zone, being the hosts and the defending champions are believed to have an upper hand over the East Zone in tomorrow’s day-night match. The finals of this inter-zonal limited over competition will be held at the Wankhede Stadium tomorrow. The East Zone have rushed into the finals after scripting a much comfortable victory over last year’s runners-up the North Zone, winning by 52 runs in the first semi-final on November 30.

On the other hand, West stunned front-runners South Zone with a spectacular game where they come from behind to register a two-wicket triumph yesterday in the second semi-final.

West Zone will surely enjoy home advantage, specially because the wicket has been prepared to be spin-friendly suiting the hosts. The wicket was slightly different in the first two games of the tournament. But as the tournament continues, gradually the pitch lost its pace and bounce.

The home team clearly possesses better all-round strength than the East. With batting holding the key to the outcome, West Zone will he calmer considering the depth they have in their lineup.
In the semifinal on 1st December, West were down in the game and their opponent, South had a more than fair chance of winning the game. But they self destroyed their chances with one of the worst fielding effort as the South Zone put down catches offered twice by hard-hitting top scorer Suryakumar Yadav and also of Axar Patel, who went on the stitch together the match-winning partnership which eventually saw West advancing to the final.

The other half-centurion in the match Ambati Rayudu also played a handy innings. Without two of their key players, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane; this team qualified for the finals. So it’s quite an appreciatable effort by all the youngsters and their captain Yusuf Pathan.

Contributing to their fantastic batting display, are the likes of Ambati Rayudu and captain Yusuf Pathan in the top of the order. And as discussed earlier, this team has depth in batting with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel.

East, in comparison, are dependant heavily on the ever consistent Manoj Tiwary, who singlehandedly won them the semifinal with a sparkling and career-best knock of 151 against the North Zone. They are certainly missing the all-round prowess and experience of the injured Laxmi Ratan Shukla. All the other batsmen, except Manoj, flopped in the semi-final and their batting collapsed. In the finals against the experienced West Zone, the other key players for the East in the final will be Shrivats Goswami, Saurabh Tiwari, Ashok Dinda and Biplab Samantry.

Going into the history of this tournament, it had started in the year 1973-74. The North Zone is the most successful team winning the title 13 times. Next to it, is the West Zone which won the title 12 times. The East Zone are far behind the West as they have won the title just 4 times.