Deodhar Trophy: Prabhsimran, Nitish Rana drive North to 48-run win over Central

Puducherry, Jul 26 (PTI) Centurion Prabhsimran Singh and skipper Nitish Rana were at the top of their game, propelling North Zone to a 48-run win over Central Zone in their Deodhar Trophy match here on Wednesday.

Wicketkeeper batsman Prabhsimran hammered 121 off 107 balls as North raced to 307 for 8, and Rana then claimed four wickets with his lethal off-spin as they restricted Central to 259.

Chasing 309 was not an easy task which was compounded by the early dismissal of Central opener Madhav Kaushik. Pacer Harshit Rana snaffled him for 6 in the second over with the board reading 7.

The pair of Shivam Chaudhary and Yash Dubey then tailored a convincing 99-run partnership for the second wicket before spinner Nishant Sindhu got rid of the former for 51 off 60 balls in the 20th over.

Central did not panic as Dubey joined forces with Upendra Yadav and added 91 runs more for the third wicket. It was in the 35th over when Yadav was dismissed for 52 off 55 balls by pacer Mayank Yadav that the panic set in.

The subsequent over saw Dubey walking back, scoring 78 off 92, after being trapped leg-before by Rana. He was the top-scorer for the side, striking 10 fours, most of them coming through the cover region.

With Central reeling at 198 for 5 in the 36th over, skipper Venkatesh Iyer and Karn Sharma scripted a 38-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Karn was evicted by Harshit in the 43rd over for 23 and the fight ebbed from Central thereafter.

Earlier, Central won the toss and invited North to bat. While opener Abhishek Sharma fell in the 11th over for 19 to Iyer at the score of 36, Prabhsimran looked in solid touch.

He stitched together an 87-run partnership for the second wicket with Harshit and a 67-run stand for the third wicket with Nitish as North got a move on.

Prabhsimran’s 121 included 13 fours and five sixes at a strike rate of 113.08, dominating the cover and point region.

He was dismissed in the 34th over by leg-spinner Karn, reducing North to 200 for 3. From that point, Nitish and Mandeep Singh added 63 runs for the fourth wicket before the alliance was broken after an unfortunate run out of the former for 51.

North failed to come up with enough convincing partnerships thereon, but did manage to post a formidable total of 307/8.

Yash Thakur and Iyer were the star performers for Central with the ball, bagging a couple of wickets each.

Brief scores: North Zone: 307/8 in 50 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 121, Nitish Rana 51; Venkatesh Iyer 2/50) beat Central Zone: 259 in 47.4 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 51, Yash Dubey 78, Upendra Yadav 52; Nitish Rana 4/48) by 48 runs.