Central canter to 123-run win

Central Zone 302 for 7 (Shukla 72, Chawla 60, Lahiri 3-32) beat East Zone 179 (Gavaskar 40, Tiwary 50, Yadav 3-33) by 102 runs
Scorecard
Points Table

Central Zone earned a consolation 123-run win over East Zone at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Half-centuries by the Central lower order propped the total to 302 for 7, and the bowlers then sent East Zone crashing to 179 in just 38 overs.

Central, choosing to bat first, made full use of the conditions as the openers Praveen Kumar and Siddharth Joshi added a whirlwind 87 in just under 11 overs. The introduction of offspinner Saurasish Lahiri pulled things back for East as he picked up three wickets and kept things tight in his ten overs. Ravikant Shukla (72) and Piyush Chawla (60) consolidated with a stand of 102 for the sixth wicket and Jai Prakash Yadav's late surge - 21 off 10 balls - took the score past 300.

Central's opening bowlers RP Singh and Shalabh Srivastava made early inroads, reducing the opposition to 35 for 3. Rohan Gavaskar and Manoj Tiwary kept East in the hunt with a stand of 102. Tiwary's dismissal, caught at the boundary by Shukla, proved to be the turning point as East collapsed. Yadav proceeded to dismiss Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta and Lahiri in the space of just four balls to seal the win.

Both teams are out of contention for the trophy - Central has eight from four games while East with just two points. Both are way behind West Zone, on top with 14 points. North Zone, currently on four points, have an outside chance with another two games to play.