Mumbai: B. Aparajith scored a classy century to help South Zone crush Central Zone by 116 runs and enter the semi-finals of the Deodhar Trophy at Wankhede stadium here on Saturday.The lone Tamil Nadu player in the squad rose to the occasion when selectors seemed to have their eyes on World Cup hopefuls Robin Uthappa (9), Manish Pandey (7) and Sanju Samson (7).
The trio, who formed the crux of South Zone batting, failed on the day but 20-year-old Aparajith played a mature innings of 113 (105b, 8x4, 2x6) during which he also built a vital 124-run partnership with Karnataka batsman Karun Nair (74 in 62 balls, 9x4).Aparajith and Karun overcame a testing early spell from Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey (1/38) before punishing the slow bowlers to help South Zone score 296/9. Pankaj Singh claimed five wickets.
Chasing 297, the Piyush Chawla-led side were reduced to four for three by his opposite number Vinay Kumar (3/8), who claimed two early wickets and effected a run-out. Mukul Dagar (47) tried to resurrect the innings with Anand Bais (19) and Chawla (31) but he too ran himself out. Central were eventually bowled out for 180 with 13.3 overs to spare.
Brief scores: South Zone 296/9 in 50 overs (B. Aparajith 113, Karun Nair 74, Pankaj Singh 5/45) bt Central Zone 180 in 36.3 overs (A. Gupta 66, M. Dagar 47, Vinay Kumar 3/8).
