Syed Mushtaq Ali Inter-Zonal Trophy 2017, Day 4 Review: Manoj Tiwary leads East Zone to easy win

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Inter-Zonal T20 tournament saw its 7th and the 8th match finish during the day. The first match was played between the lackluster West Zone and the inspired South Zone. South recorded their first win of the T20 tournament after losing the first two games. West were bowled by South Zone as the westerners never got going. The southern team transformed its bowling performance in the batting performance as Mayank Agarwal starred with the bat.

The second match saw the inform East Zone take on the out of sort North Zone. North being put into bat first saw their first four batsmen getting starts but could not capitalize. They managed a score of just under 160 which was chased down within 17 overs by their Eastern counterparts. Virat Singh and Manoj Tiwary blew the North Zone bowlers away.

Here are the two matches on day 4 of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2017 illustrated in brief.

West Zone vs South Zone – South Zone won by 5 wickets

South Zone registered their first win of the tournament as they comprehensively beat their western opposition. The West Zone never got going as their skipper was caught and sent back with only 25 on the board. Sheldon Jackson struggled throughout his short-lived innings as he scored 23 off 26 delivering and was sent back by Murugan Ashwin. Aditya Tare looked solid and just when he started to click he was dismissed for 26 off just 19 deliveries.

The newest star of Indian cricket Kedar Jadhav was dismissed cheaply and so was the rest of the batting line-up as West Zone managed a poor 140 in their 20 overs; thanks to some fireworks from Irfan Pathan (26) and Deepak Hooda (32). South’s bowling was commendable, as they never let the opposition break their shackles. Vijay Shankar and Sandeep Warrier were the pick of the bowlers.

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South Zone got off to a flyer. Mayank Agarwal smacked the West Zone bowlers. They scored 52 runs in the power play with the loss of just one wicket. The opening stand was broken at 48 when Vishnu Vinod was trapped leg before wicket by the veteran Pravin Tambe. But his partner continued where Vishnu left off, Mayank scored 70 runs in just 46 deliveries (9 fours and two sixes) and took the game away from West Zone.

They hit a speed breaker when Ricky Bhui and Hanuman Vihari were sent back cheaply but got home eventually winning the game by 5 wickets.

Brief Score:

West Zone – 140/9 20 overs (Hooda 32, Pathan, 26, Milind 3/34, Shankar 2/21)

South Zone – 141/5 17.4 overs ( Agarwal 70, Vinod 36, Pathan 1/22, Choudhary 1/27)

North Zone vs East Zone – East Zone won by 8 wickets

North Zone have struggled throughout the tournament and now are at the bottom of the table with just one point to their name. East Zone, on the other hand, are soaring high as they sit pretty at the top of the table untouched. The match saw Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, and Unmukt Chand all getting 20 runs and losing their wicket. Yuvraj Singh was their top scorer with 38 runs off 24 balls hitting four sixes.

North Zone somehow scraped to 159 while losing nine wickets on the road. Pragyan Ojha was the best bowler for the Eastern team. He took three wickets in his four overs giving away 33 runs in the process. Sayan Ghosh, Pritam Das and Amit Verma also managed to pick up two wickets each.

East Zone started off their innings very badly, as they lost their opener Shreevats Goswami caught on the very first ball. Soon, their number three batsman Ishank Jaggi was sent packing as he was caught by Yuvraj of Umar Nazir for a mere 7 off 7 deliveries. East Zone were reduced to 13 for 2 within two overs.

Their captain Manoj Tiwary walked into bat and carved a partnership with Virat Singh. Both the batsmen started off cautiously but broke free later on to take the game away from North Zone. Tiwary scored 75 (43 balls, 5 fours, 5 sixes) and Singh was just one run short at 74 (48 balls, 9 fours, 2 sixes). They shared an unbeaten partnership worth 149.

They now sit pretty at the top with 12 points having won all the three games that they have played.

Brief Score:

North Zone – 159/9 20 overs (Yuvraj 38, Sangwan 21, Ojha 3/33, Verma 2/18)

East Zone – 162/2 16.2 overs  (Tiwary 75, Singh 74, Sangwan 1/26, Nazir 1/31)