North Zone win JK Bose trophy after eight years

North Zone win JK Bose trophy after eight years

Sharad Deep-led ONGC-Shiv Naresh North Zone won the JK Bose All-India Sports Journalists Association's Twenty20 cricket tournament on the basis of better run rate at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday.

Though North Zone lost to West Zone in their last league match by 29 runs on Saturday, their run rate of 1.344 was good enough to fetch them the championship crown.

Defending champions West Zone finished second with a run rate of 0.766, while East Zone which defeated South Zone in other league match of the day at the Judged Ground finished joint third.

North Zone, which were the runners-up last year, won the championship trophy after a long gap of eight years.

On Thursday, it was a close match with North Zone going great to chase 159 in 20 overs but could only manage 128 for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.

Rajeev Bajpai (26, 26b, 4x4) and Jaswinder Sidhu (12) added 56 runs for the opening wicket. Rakesh Thapliyal (24, 16b, 4X4) and Vijay Kumar (23*, 26b, 3x4) were the other main run getters.

For West Zone Ashwin Ferro (2/9), Sanjeev Samyal (2/13) and Devendra Pandey (2/23) were the main wickets takers.

Earlier, West Zone after being asked to bat first managed 158/8 in 20 overs. Man-of-the-match Ripple Christie (47, 37b, 5x4), Abhijeet Kulkarni (37, 33b, 4x4) and Sudhir Tripathi (34, 24b, 5x4) were the main run getters.

Rajeev Bajpai once again underlined his potential with the ball too, bagging 3/28, where as Amit Chaudhary (2/24) and Rakesh Thapliyal (2/26) also bowled well.

Brief scores:

West Zone: 158 for 8 in 20 overs (Ripple Christie 47, Abhijeet Kulkarni 37, Sudhir Tripathi 34, Rajeev Bajpai 3 for 28, Amit Chaudhary 2 for 24, Rakesh Thapliyal 2 for 26) beat North Zone: 129 for 8 in 20 overs (Rajeev Bajpai 26, Vijay Kumar 23*, Rakesh Thapliyal 24, Ashwin Ferro 2 for 9, Sanjeev Samyal 2 for 13, Devendra Pandey 2 for 23).