Vadodara, GUJARAT :

Mumbai :

He may have been released by his last year’s IPL franchise, Rising Pune Supergiants. Still, Irfan Pathan had a reason to smile on Monday. The veteran seamer exploded the explosive North Zone batting line-up to set up West Zone’s thumping eight-wicket victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 championship.

In fact, Pathan’s spell of three for 10, with the prize scalps of Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and Yuvraj Singh, would have impressed the sizeable IPL team coaches and scouts present in the President’s Box along with all three national selectors.

Pathan’s job was made easier by the North batsmen who committed hara-kiri and threw their wickets away. While Shikhar Dhawan poked at one that moved away from him to offer Kedar Jadhav a sharp chance in the slips, Pant and Yuvraj played extravagant shots against a moving ball to offer skiers on the off-side in the circle.

Barring Gautam Gambhir, who registered a second successive fifty before being dismissed off the penultimate ball of the innings, none of the other batsmen tried to apply themselves. As a result, a target of 106 was never going to ask questions of West Zone.

Parthiv Patel and Shreyas Iyer’s quickfire partnership at the top ensured West overhaul the paltry target with more than seven overs to spare and make up for the opening day’s loss against Central Zone. Iyer along with Ankeet Bawne and Priyank Panchal will now join the India A squad for the warm-up game against visiting Australians.

The scores:

North Zone: Shikhar Dhawan c Jadhav b Pathan 3, Gautam Gambhir c Tambe b Thakur 60, Rishabh Pant c Hooda b Pathan 2, Yuvraj Singh c Hooda b Pathan 0, Amit Pachhara run out 5, Parvez Rasool c Pathan b Nayar 5, Mayank Dagar run out 11, Harbhajan Singh c Pathan b Chaudhary 7, Pradeep Sangwan (not out) 10, Mohit Sharma (not out) 1; Extras (lb-1, w-2) 3; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 107.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-24, 3-24, 4-32, 5-39, 6-57, 7-90, 8-106.

West Zone bowling: Irfan Pathan 4-0-10-3, Shardul Thakur 4-0-29-1, Ishwar Chaudhary 4-0-23-1, Abhishek Nayar 3-0-18-1, Pravin Tambe 4-0-23-0, Deepak Hooda 1-0-3-0.

West Zone: Shreyas Iyer lbw Rasool 30, Parthiv Patel b Sharma 56, Aditya Tare (not out) 14, Ankeet Bawne (not out) 4; Extras (w-4) 4; Total (for two wkts. in 12.4 overs): 108.

Fall of wickets: 1-80, 2-92.

North Zone bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 2-0-26-0, Umar Nazir 2.4-0-24-0, Harbhajan Singh 2-0-15-0, Mohit Sharma 2-0-24-1, Mayank Dagar 2-0-12-0, Parvez Rasool 2-0-7-1.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Cricket / by Amol Karhadkar / Mumbai – February 13th, 2017