South Zone sailed to a 116-run win against Central Zone at Wankhede Stadium to set-up a semi-final clash against West Zone on December 1. Baba Aparajith (113 off 105) played a mature innings during which he also built a vital 124-run partnership with Karun Nair (74) to set-up the game for South Zone. The young batsman from Tamil Nadu put up a determined effort to anchor the innings after they were asked to bat. Facing the 297-run target, the Piyush Chawla-led side were left reeling on 4/3 by his opposite number Vinay Kumar, who claimed two wickets and affected a run-out. Unable to recover from the early blows, CZ were bowled out for 180. Earlier Central Zone’s new-ball bowlers, Pankaj Singh and Ishwar Pandey kept the South Zone batsmen on their toes from the word go with some assistance from the wicket. Inducing an edge from Robin Uthappa, Pankaj sent back the opener for nine to give his side their first breakthrough. 28 runs later, Mayank Agarwal nicked Ishwar Pandey to Mukal Dagar at first slip to depart for 35. Manish Pandey who then joined Aparajith was also sent back early. Dropped on two by Jalaj Saxena at cover off Ishwar, the middle-order Karnataka batsman was castled by Anureet Singh for seven. Karun Nair then joined Aparajith in the middle, and the pair took the team to the three-figure mark with a steady batting display. Scoring at a quicker pace they injected momentum in to the innings as they brought their team back into the game. As he continued to milk the CZ bowlers, Nair struck Saxena for four in front of the wicket to help the team past 200. However, a little while later, with the team on 212, Nair departed pulling Pankaj only to be caught by Ishwar at deep mid-wicket ending the partnership. Aparajith continued to garner runs off the attack as he watchfully carried the innings forward. He struck Anureet through covers to reach 90 with a boundary. As he inched towards his second list A century, the top-order batsman displayed some well timed strokes. While SZ lost just one wicket in the batting powerplay, they garnered 39 runs off the five-over period. Sanju Samson who had joined Aparajith in the middle during the period was the next to depart; caught at long-on by Pankaj off Saxena as he looked to find the ropes in an effort to add some quick runs towards the business end of the innings. Aparajith who had held the innings together with a determined batting display however continued to put up resistance and reached his second List A 100 off 98 with a single to midwicket off Jalaj a couple of overs later with Sachin Baby for company. As the innings approached the end, SZ batsmen looked to accelerate to add valuable runs to set a formidable target for the opposition. In the effort, Aparajith who had hit Saxena for six was caught by Dagar after sweeping the bowler off the next ball bringing an end to a crucial knock. With the team on 272/6 with 19 balls remaining, captain Vinay Kumar joined Sachin in the middle. And 20 runs later was sent back in the last over off Pankaj. The pacer was on a hat-trick with the wickets of Vinay and Sachin Baby. While Vinay was caught by Anureet at mid-on, Baby edged the bowler to the wicketkeeper. Ashish Reddy who then made his way to the crease sent the bowler to the fence through extra cover. But he was caught at deep mid-wicket by Anureet Singh on the next ball. Losing three wickets in the last over for five runs, SZ finished with 296/9. The team from South then returned to reduce Central Zone to 4/3 in a mere 4.5 overs. Central Zone’s woes began with Saxena being run out in an unfortunate mix-up in the second over with just one run on the board. Then in the fifth over, Vinay struck a double blow to push the opposition on to the back-foot. While Jitesh Sharma struck the pacer straight to second slip where Manish took the catch, Ashok Menaria was trapped lbw. Facing a mountainous task, Anand Bais joined Dagar in an effort to revive the innings. However after adding 59 for the fourth wicket, a direct hit by Sachin ran out Bais for 19. With 215 runs still required, Dagar was the third Central Zone batsman to be run out. Sent back by Chawla, the opener was run out for 47. At 82/5 Arjit Gupta joined his captain who was stumped off left-arm spinner Darshan Misal after the pair had added 47 runs for the sixth wicket. Kuldeep Yadav was the next to return to the pavilion after nicking Manish to Uthappa leaving the team on 138/7. Next to return to the dressing room was Anureet Singh caught at long-off by Sanju Samson off Misal. Gupta, who had meanwhile held up one end, reached his half-century with a six over long-off in a late onslaught. Vinay Kumar then brought himself back into the attack and claimed Gupta on the first ball off the batting powerplay for 66 off 49 balls. And a while later Reddy knocked back Pankaj’s middle-stump to bowl the team to victory. Scorecard