Dharamsala, Mar 19: West Zone have won the 2011-12 Deodhar Trophy after thrashing North Zone by 113 runs in the final played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium here in Dharamsala today. After the West Zone batsmen piled up a massive 355 for four in 50 overs, their bowlers bowled North Zone out for 242 in 42.2 overs to give West Zone the title.

The match followed a similar script to West Zone’s routing of East Zone in the semi-final. After North Zone captain Harbhajan Singh won the toss and put the opposition in to bat, West Zone openers Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane struck a 131-run opening stand in just 19 overs. While Patel (78 off 63) was removed by Harabhajan Singh (lbw) off the first ball of the 20th over, Rahane continued in the company of Cheteshwar Pujara to take the West Zone score beyond 200.

Rahane was eventually caught by Shikhar Dhawan off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma in the 39th over but not before he had scored a 122-ball 118. With the score reading 247 for two, Kedar Jadhav joined Pujara and plundered the North Zone bowling at will. While Pujara fell in the 48th over for a 67-ball 71, Jadhav’s hurricane innings of 67* from 43 deliveries (7x4, 3x6) took the West Zone total in excess of 350. Bipul Sharma was the only North Zone bowler to be spared by the West Zone batsmen; the spinner finishing with relatively impressive figures of 10-0-49-1.

India paceman Munaf Patel then put the contest beyond North Zone’s reach as he reduced them to four for 25 within the first nine overs. Iqbal Abdulla, having taken six for 32 in the semi-final against East Zone, continued his good form in the tournament by taking the next two wickets as North Zone stumbled to 92 for six in 25.3 overs.

Bipul Sharma (68) and Harbhajan Singh (30) put on a fighting 97-run stand to give the North Zone chase some respectability but Abdulla’s double-strike in the 38th over ended their resistance. Left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar then finished the job, removing Manpreet Gony (28) and Pradeep Sangwan (0) to complete a 113-run win for West Zone.

Brief scores: West Zone 342/7 in 50.0 overs (Parthiv Patel 78, Ajinkya Rahane 118, Cheteshwar Pujara 71, Pradeep Sangwan 2/63) beat North Zone 242/10 in 42.2 overs (Bipul Sharma 68, Munaf Patel 4/34, Iqbal Abdulla 4/68)