Kevin Pietersen’s fractured relationship with the England team will take years rather than weeks to repair if it can be mended at all, Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has said

Daniel Brettig22-Aug-2012Kevin Pietersen’s fractured relationship with the England team will take years rather than weeks to repair if it can be mended at all, Australia’s coach Mickey Arthur has said.The breach of trust inherent in text messages Pietersen is alleged to have sent to his South African opponents during the recently completed Test series, among a myriad of other issues, forced the batsman’s removal from the England dressing room. Arthur, a former coach of South Africa, told ESPNcricinfo that in the circumstances England’s selectors had no other choice but to drop Pietersen.”It takes time to mend,” Arthur said of the rift between player and team. “They say trust and reputation takes a year to two years to really build, and you can lose it in two minutes. I think that’s where they’ve got to with KP now.”England have dealt with it in the best possible way. The way they’ve handled it has been clinical, its been ruthless, it’s been very good. It did obviously upset their team a bit, but little Jonny Bairstow came in and got 95 and 54 at Lord’s and played really well, another guy steps up to the plate and does the job.”There’s no one guy that’s bigger than the team and England must’ve thought that KP had got to that point. It was tough for them, it was pretty unsettling, but I think they’ve handled it very well.”Arthur was a bleary-eyed spectator for the Test matches in England, watching the matches on television in his Perth home. He was not surprised by the success of South Africa’s bowlers in tucking up Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook from around the wicket, but also lauded Vernon Philander for his adroit use of new-ball swing.”I know from our last meetings with Cook and Strauss in 2008, we certainly came around the wicket to them,” Arthur said. “Morne Morkel has been the one who has created a lot of problems from around the wicket, and that is certainly a line we’d explore to attack [against England]. What Philander did was he swung it, and anybody who swings the ball is going to be a handful.”You want to try to play with the batsmen’s feet, that’s why you need to use your bouncer well, use it intelligently, that type of stuff. South Africa definitely did it very well.”Arthur’s team are scheduled to be South Africa’s next Test opponents in three home matches at the outset of the Australian summer, a prospect now rich with meaning since the winner of the series will be able to lay claim to top spot on the ICC’s Test rankings.”It looks like being another Test championship series and it is a mouth-watering prospect, certainly one I’m really looking forward to,” Arthur said. “Our Test side’s a really settled unit, to beat South Africa now you’ve got to play really disciplined cricket for a long period of time and hopefully we can have the preparation and be ready for that when the time comes.”I know from our time together that the South African guys are a resilient bunch, they enjoy touring together, they’re a really good team, a good team ethos going, they’re well-led, and very well coached. I think they all believe in their ability now, they believe in their ability to win the big games, and I can’t wait for that Test series [in Australia].”In the meantime Australia have 50-over and Twenty20 assignments in the UAE and Sri Lanka, with Arthur leaving the ODI leg of the tour to his assistant Steve Rixon. Rather than marshal the team against Afghanistan and Pakistan, Arthur will be tuning his plans with George Bailey for the World T20, particularly the nuances of the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo where the Australians will be based for the group phase.”I’m just clearing my head and getting a good idea in terms of the roles we want to use for players,” Arthur said. “There will be a bit of opposition analysis in that, and just getting a real clear head around the way we want to tackle this, have a look at how successful teams have played at Premadasa, study that ground a little bit. I’m suspecting towards that back end of the tournament that the wickets will turn, so I’m just getting all the attention to detail right.”

Danni Wyatt top scored for England Women as completed a second comfortable victory over Pakistan in as many days with an 81-run win at Loughborough.

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Sep-2012
ScorecardDanni Wyatt struck five fours as she top scored for England•Getty Images

Danni Wyatt top scored for England Women as completed a second comfortable victory over Pakistan in as many days with an 81-run win at Loughborough. Wyatt’s 41 from 29 balls helped England to 162 for 7, which proved well out of range for Pakistan.Wyatt’s innings followed 35 from just 17 balls from Sarah Taylor, the knock contained six fours as England got off to a bright start having won the toss. Wyatt kept up the momentum with five fours of her own before Susie Rose slugged two sixes and two fours in her 15-ball 29.In reply, Pakistan lost Nain Abidi in the first over and never gained any momentum, largely thanks to 2 for 15 from Laura Marsh.”It was another good team performance today,” player of the match Wyatt. “We got the runs on the board and put them under pressure with the ball. I was pleased to contribute and it was very satisfying to set a new highest score. We’ll take momentum from these matches into the series against the West Indies.”England will play West Indies Women in a five-match NatWest Women’s International T20 Series commencing at Durham on Saturday September 8.

As one of the mature bodies in a Test attack featuring several younger men, Peter Siddle is preparing for a heavy workload this summer

Brydon Coverdale30-Oct-2012Ten days from the first Test against South Africa, Australia’s attack is the subject of so many known unknowns and unknown unknowns that it would leave Donald Rumsfeld’s head spinning. Will the selectors choose four fast men or three and a spinner? Do they want the left-arm variety that Mitchell Starc provides? Is Starc fit enough after playing so much Twenty20? Has Ben Hilfenhaus had enough cricket lately? It seems like the only known known is that Peter Siddle will be there, ready to bowl himself into the ground.It’s a job that he’s hoping is his all summer long. While the selectors are keen for the younger fast men – Starc, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson – to rotate through the side to avoid burnout, there will be plenty of burden on Siddle. Six Tests – three against South Africa and three against Sri Lanka – are on the agenda over the next two months and Siddle, 27, wants to be part of all of them.”That’s the plan. You always want to play as many as you can,” Siddle said. “I’ve been lucky enough that the last two summers I’ve played every Test match. I’m the only one [of the bowlers] who has done that and it’s something I’ll be trying to do again. The preparation that I’ve had here, and leading into this series, is the same as what I’ve done in those years. I think it will leave me in pretty good stead to be fit and strong. As long as the form is still there.”And it will be a slimmed-down Siddle who will take on the South Africans at the Gabba, starting next Friday. When Siddle visited South Africa for a three-Test series in early 2009, one of the local papers kept referring to his “man boobs”, but they won’t have any such ammunition this time. The switch to a vegetarian diet has helped him lose five kilograms since the tour of the West Indies in April, and he looks fitter than he ever has before.He’ll need to be. The ability to bowl long spells, day in day out, has always been an attractive part of Siddle’s package. That will be even more important given the reluctance of the team management to ask too much of the younger men. Siddle might have Hilfenhaus to help him carry the workload at the Gabba, but there is also a chance he will be the sole mature body alongside Pattinson and Starc.”I’ve always been like that,” Siddle said. “That’s just me in general. I like to have the ball in my hand, I like to do anything I can for the captain and for the team. If that situation comes up and I have to bowl those long spells, I do.”There’s a lot of young blokes around the squad, some haven’t played a lot of cricket. They’re developing as well and you can tell the improvements from last summer to now, Starc, Pattinson and Cummins, just the way that they’re getting through games and pulling up, they’re improving. If I have to bowl long overs then I will.”At this stage, Siddle’s Victorian team-mate Pattinson appears the next most likely fast man to win a place in the Gabba line-up, given that he is on top of the Sheffield Shield wicket tally this summer and was Man of the Match on Test debut at the Gabba last season. Pattinson said there would be fierce competition in the nets next week among the fast bowlers, and while he would love to play all six Tests this summer he was realistic about the role workload would play in the selectors’ decisions.”It’s hard to put a cap on how many Tests I’ll be available for. Six would be really nice,” Pattinson said. “But I’m not sure which way they’re going to go. It’s going to be determined on workloads and how much we bowl in the first couple of Tests, who’s up and firing.”It’s just part of sport. The competition in the nets is extremely high. I can’t wait to get up there on Tuesday and bowl against everyone in the nets. It’s almost competition within your own team. That’s what brings out the best in your team as well, having that competition vying for spots.”

A round-up of the fourth round of Ranji Trophy’s Group A matches on November 27, 2012

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2012
ScorecardA Bengal collapse on the final day, propelled by seamer Ishwar Pandey who claimed five wickets, took Madhya Pradesh to a 138-run victory in Indore. The win didn’t look probable until the final innings, in which Bengal needed to bat out 58 overs to save the game; considering their respectable first-innings performance, that didn’t look beyond them.Their openers started positively, scoring 43 runs in seven overs before Pandey struck. Another seamer Anand Rajan, soon dismissed the other opener, Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, and effected two run outs to leave them struggling at 76 for 4 in the 21st over. A third fast bowler, Amarjeet Singh, combined with Pandey to run through the rest of the line-up that was without Manoj Tiwary due to a finger injury. Only wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha tried to hold one end up, but after scoring 29, he was bowled by Pandey. At 119 for 8, the contest was effectively over, and the last two wickets were taken by Pandey as Bengal were bowled out for 138 in the 46th over, with more than 11 overs remaining in the day.Bengal’s fast bowler Shami Ahmed was the highest wicket-taker of the match with 11 wickets, and Pandey finished with ten wickets. This was their best bowling figures in first-class cricket.With this defeat, Bengal are the only team in Group A to have lost two matches so far.
ScorecardHyderabad, after witnessing Mumbai score 443 in the first innings, set about consolidating on their strong overnight score of 423 for 3, in what turned out to be a one-innings-a-side draw. By the time they were bowled out on the final day, they had scored a mammoth 669, their fourth-highest score in first-class history. Besides Akshath Reddy and Hanuma Vihari, who were dismissed for 196 and 191 respectively on the third day, Bavanaka Sandeep was the other centurion, with a ton on the final day.
ScorecardFighting centuries by Manprit Juneja and Rush Kalaria took Gujarat to a position of dominance against Railways before the match was drawn on the final day. After having being bowled out for 117 in the first innings, Gujarat were always scrapping to avoid defeat. But Railways’ opportunities were snuffed out by Gujarat’s commanding batting performance that helped them amass 551 for 8. Due to the first-innings deficit, though, they gained only one point out of the match.Resuming at 288 for 6, Juneja and Dhurv added 95 runs, before the most productive stand of 156 between Juneja and Kalaria, who has played for India at the Under-19 World Cup. Juneja was unbeaten on 153, and Kalaria scored 100, his highest in his short first-class career.Both the teams have drawn all their matches so far.

Australia is building a support system in place for offspinner Nathan Lyon, to ensure his path of advice is defined

Daniel Brettig in Adelaide21-Nov-2012If Nathan Lyon’s growing confidence was summed up by the back-spinner he unleashed to dismiss Jacques Rudolph in Brisbane, his valued place in Australian cricket can be measured by how carefully the national team is building a support network around him.Ahead of the Adelaide Test match, Lyon was advised on bowling by the former Australian spin bowler Ashley Mallett, but not directly. Instead, Mallett had discussions with the senior coach Mickey Arthur, who passed Mallett’s advice along to Lyon and also Steve Rixon, who has been appointed as the designated spin coach to allow the other specialist bowling coach Ali de Winter time to work purely with the pacemen.As the season began, Lyon had spoken of how difficult he had found sorting through a myriad of advice during his first year as an international bowler, whether it had arrived via friends, the media or other bowlers and coaches simply calling him up at random to state what he was doing wrong. Eager for Lyon to learn but equally keen to ensure he is not overloaded with voices, Arthur, Rixon and South Australia’s coach Darren Berry have worked assiduously to make sure Lyon’s path is consistently defined.”We’re filtering it through the people he knows best,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo. “Darren Berry and SA have done a really good job with him, Steve Rixon within my support staff is a really experienced coach and has been very good with him as well. They’ve built a good relationship so he’s been monitoring those messages, and I wanted to have a chat with Ashley Mallett because he’s so knowledgeable on spin bowling and he confirmed what we were doing with Nathan. So I opened up a nice little communication channel there.”I just asked Ashley if he had anything he could mention to me. I’ve designated Steve Rixon within our squad as working with Nathan and I’m really happy they’ve got a good relationship going. Our messages are very consistent with the messages of Darren Berry. Everybody is saying exactly the same thing and that’s the message being delivered to Nathan within our team. That to me is really important, that the players are getting the same messages and not a conflicting message.”No one was more delighted to see an Australian spinner benefit from his expanded repertoire than his captain Michael Clarke, who has shown an instinctive feel for leading slow bowlers from the moment he dived to pouch the sharpest of slip catches from Lyon’s first ball in Test cricket, against Sri Lanka in Galle last year. In addition to knowing the value of spin bowling, Clarke also finds a great deal of fun in it, and the twinkle in his eye when he spoke of Lyon’s variation could only have come from someone who has bowled spin for years himself.”Well, we’re calling it a more than a back-spinner,” Clarke said, grinning. “It’s something he’s worked on and it was nice to see him get a wicket with it [in the] last Test match, so hopefully we’ll see him get plenty more wickets for Australia with balls spinning in both directions.”He can contain if he has to and we can dictate that by the fields we have, but then if there’s an opportunity for Nathan to put more pressure on the [batsmen] I think he’s got the skill to be able to do that as well. He’s bowling well, I thought he came back really well in Brisbane and that shows his character.”I know he wants to do well in front of his home crowd, but as I’ve said to Nathan plenty of times he needs to keep doing exactly what he’s doing, don’t change a thing and he’ll continue to have success at the highest level.”South Africa’s batsmen have now tried several times to hit Lyon out of Australia’s attack in the manner they took to Bryce McGain in Cape Town in 2009, but each time the bowler has responded with better subsequent spells and important wickets. The touring captain Graeme Smith noted Lyon’s importance to this match with a good degree of respect.”Nathan has proven to be a solid performer for Australia. That’s exactly how we view him,” Smith said. “We haven’t taken an arrogant view of him, maybe some other people have. We respect what he is capable of and he will play a role in this game.”

England will begin the defence of their Women’s World Cup title against Sri Lanka on February 2 at the Wankhede Stadium

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2012England will begin the defence of their Women’s World Cup title against Sri Lanka on February 2 at the Wankhede Stadium. The hosts, India, will play on the opening day of the tournament against West Indies at the same venue and the final will be held at the Cricket Club of India ground on February 17.The eight teams that have qualified have been split into two groups of four and the initial stage of the tournament will see one team eliminated from each group with the remaining sides progressing to the Super Six phase. As with the men’s World Twenty20, the teams will retain their seedings from the group stage regardless of the position they finish – so, for example, if England finish third in their group they will still progress as A1.England, Australia, New Zealand and India qualified for the tournament after finishing as the top four in the 2009 competition and will be joined in Mumbai by West Indies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa. West Indies are one of the rapidly improving sides in the women’s game and reached the semi-finals of the recent World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka.A total of 25 matches will be played across five venues in Mumbai – Wankhede Stadium, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Cricket Club of India (CCI), Middle Income Group Club Ground (MIG) and DY Patil Stadium. Ten of the matches will be broadcast live.Alan Isaac, the ICC president, said: “This will be the third time that India has staged the Women’s World Cup but this could be by far the most significant. I feel that we are on the verge of a massive sea change in the women’s game and where better for that to take place than in the great city of Mumbai.”Last month the World Cup trophy was detained at Mumbai airport because officials said it had not been brought into India under the correct procedure.For a full fixture list click here

Under-pressure New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum gets a piece of advice from his South African counterpart ahead of the second Test in Port Elizabeth

Firdose Moonda10-Jan-2013Brendon McCullum has been around international cricket for long enough to know when someone is grandstanding for the media. He will know that when Graeme Smith offered him a piece of advice, not voluntarily but, after being asked by a journalist, it was not one of those times.With Smith close to ten years in the job and McCullum only entering his second match as leader of the Test team, the South African stalwart was invited to share his thoughts on what his counterpart may be going through and how he should handle it. “A game like Newlands gets you to ask questions and Brendon might be feeling the heat especially with everything that has gone on,” Smith said, referring to the Ross Taylor debacle.”I’ve been there, you have to try and keep a level head and inner strength of character is crucial; just not get too emotional. When there is a lot of noise around you, you have to focus on how to get your team through that noise,” Smith concluded.The noise around New Zealand has only got louder with news of another injury. Despite a late fitness test, James Franklin was ruled out of the second Test. He is New Zealand’s third major injury of the series with Daniel Vettori and Tim Southee having not even made it to South Africa.It leaves New Zealand needing to debut Colin Munro, who does not have the bowling credentials of Franklin but has batting numbers to back him up. Munro is currently second on the Plunket Shield standings with 623 runs from four matches including three centuries, one of which was an unbeaten 269.”He likes to play the game with a free spirit, and he has earned the right to be in this team,” McCullum said. More importantly, it seems he has some staying power at the crease, something New Zealand are desperate for and McCullum hopes he can play a “counterattacking role” at No.7.Given the performance in the first innings of the Newlands Test, it may turn out to be a positive that New Zealand were forced to tinker with the batting because they were due to stick to the same combination at St George’s. Instead, the area they were going to change was the bowling. Chris Martin’s three wickets in Cape Town, while crucial in forcing the South African declaration, were not deemed enough to keep his spot.New Zealand are looking for aggression, so much so that they asked their bowlers to run in hard at their own batsmen in the nets this week. They believe Neil Wagner will provide that. “When you look at the South African line-up, there is a bit of discrepancy between theirs and ours. The aim at practice was two-fold: to toughen our batsman up and to get the bowlers more positive.”Ironically, it seems New Zealand are looking to answer the question of how to beat South Africa by including South Africans in their team. Munro and BJ Watling were both born in Durban before moving to New Zealand in their early years while Wagner was educated at the same school as AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis before trying to make it in England and then relocating to New Zealand.It’s always a talking point when South Africa play against countrymen who have changed nationalities but McCullum has far bigger things to worry about. After the first session in Cape Town, all his squad’s hard-work from the days before was undone and they do not want to repeat that in Port Elizabeth.New Zealand spent the weekend training and they had full sessions every day in the lead up to the Test, contrasting starkly with their opposition who took three days off, had two practices and one optional session. They are serious about getting better and hopeful that the slow pitch at St Georges will aid them because it may be more like home.”We don’t overlook what happened in that first innings in Cape Town, but we can’t dwell on that kind of stuff otherwise it affects ability and confidence,” McCullum said. “We made some really good adjustments in a short space of time and showed some qualities that we want to be known for as New Zealand cricketers. There were some really tough times that we will never live down but at the same time, we have to learn lessons from that. We’ve got a team that we think is capable of performing in these conditions.”So have they blocked out the screams for the coach to go, the administrators to answer tough questions, Taylor to make a return and the line-up to change dramatically? “What’s going on is going on; we’ve got a job to do,” McCullum said. “We want to play with as much pride and capability as we can. We know people want a fighting performance from us and we want to deliver that.” No grandstanding there either. Just desperate honesty.

England’s first Twenty20 practice match against New Zealand XI was abandoned due to rain after only 9.1 overs were bowled in Whangarei

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Feb-2013Match abandoned
ScorecardAnton Devcich scoops the ball over Jos Buttler•Getty Images

England’s first Twenty20 practice match against New Zealand XI was abandoned due to rain after only 9.1 overs were bowled in Whangarei. However, the match will be re-played at 1400 local time tomorrow.Stuart Broad, the England Twenty20 captain, won the toss under grey skies and chose to field first. Hamish Rutherford, the New Zealand XI opener, made an aggressive start and scored 21 out of a 23-run opening stand with Anton Devcich, but he was out to Chris Woakes’ first delivery. It was the only wicket to fall as Devcich and Tom Latham put on a 47-run stand before the rains came.The squads featured two players who were making comebacks into their respective sides – Stuart Broad and Ross Taylor. Broad, playing his first competitive match after a heel injury forced him out of India tour after the Mumbai Test in November, bowled just seven balls in the innings.Taylor, who last played for New Zealand during the Sri Lanka tour in November, did not get a chance to bat on Monday and will not be involved any further with the England warm-ups. Andrew Ellis, the New Zealand XI captain, said that Taylor had only been scheduled to play in the first match, before heading back to Hamilton in advance of the T20 series.”Ross is nipping off back home, to pack some stuff up before the tour starts, and then he’ll join the Black Caps,” Ellis said. “Neil Broom is here, so I imagine he’ll be a direct replacement.”Ellis added that he expected Taylor to slot back into the squad without any issues, after he was removed from the New Zealand captaincy and opted out of the South Africa tour. “It’s always good to have ‘Rosco’ around,” Ellis said. “He’s got a big smile on his face, and he’s a happy character. I think everyone has combined now to move forward and attack this series as a combined unit. I definitely get that feeling.”The teams are scheduled to play another practice match on Wednesday in Whangarei before moving over to Auckland for the first of three matches in the Twenty20 series.

BCB medical staff are not happy with the amount of injuries they have had to contend with, through players pushing themselves in the BPL

Mohammad Isam27-Feb-2013The injury management of Bangladesh cricketers has come under sharp focus after two players who were injured during the BPL had to withdraw from the touring party to Sri Lanka.Chief selector Akram Khan has called for better monitoring of injuries, along with greater communication between the clubs and franchises, and the national board. “In the national team, we can think of a replacement as soon as someone is injured,” Akram said. “It is the opposite in the BPL or for Dhaka club cricket, [because] nobody will listen to the player if he says ‘I am injured’. They will always tell him to play. Everyone has to be accountable, but there are gaps in the system which should be plugged.”Akram also held the players responsible for not giving their injuries enough attention. It is perceived that the local players’ desire to play all BPL matches stems from the pay disputes from the tournament’s first season; none of the local players are willing to take a chance, lest the injuries are used as reasons not to pay, although Mushfiqur Rahim said on Wednesday that BPL franchises are liable to play the players regardless of injuries.”I have not been in such a position as a selector in the last five years, where so many players [have] turned up injured from a domestic tournament.” Akram said. “The physical pain will not go away if you continue to play, [it only] gets worse. Those who had minor injuries have now broken down. There is a proper medical structure in Bangladesh cricket, so the players should take advantage of it.”One of the two players who got injured was Naeem Islam, who hurt his quadriceps while playing for Chittagong Kings just two weeks before the Bangladesh team was scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka. He accidentally stepped on the ball while attempting to stop it, and ended up being stretchered off as a result of the mishap. Chittagong physio Bayezid Ahmed said he did not clear Naeem, but Naeem ended up playing in the second semi-final four days later.”The decision to play with injury was Naeem’s,” Bayezid said. “He said he felt better but I never cleared him as fit. I informed the Bangladesh team physio [Vibhav Singh] of his condition, but four days later he decided to play. After February 20, he was no longer in my hands.”Shakib Al Hasan continued to play in the BPL despite minor injuries, and later had to be sent to Australia in order to reduce pressure on his right shin bone, an injury he has had since November last year. Ziaur Rahman also suffered a shoulder injury during the BPL. Only Tamim Iqbal pulled out of Duronto Rajshahi’s BPL campaign towards the end, after injuring his left wrist.Enamul Haque jr was also ruled out of the Test series in Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury he suffered during the BPL final, but neither Enamul nor Naeem informed Vibhav Singh of their injuries after the BPL.During the domestic Twenty20 competition, the national-team physio asked the franchises to give him player fitness updates, but only a few replied. It left him and the rest of the team management in the dark about the pile-up that landed at their feet just a few days before they were to pick the 15-man Test squad.”Had we known of them [the injuries] before, it would have been different,” Vibhav said. “In the next BPL, the franchises and the medical team need to work together with the national medical staff.”I did send the franchises an email requesting feedback from their medical staff, but I did not get anything. So it made it a bit difficult for us to gauge where players were because we had no control over their medical concerns. We can make recommendations but at the end of the day it’s a separate tournament, so we can just advice.”

A balanced, combined batting effort, led by Ambati Rayudu’s responsible innings of an unbeaten 78, took West Zone to the Deodhar Trophy title with a five-wicket win over North Zone in Guwahati

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Mar-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA collective batting effort, led by Ambati Rayudu’s unbeaten 78, helped West Zone clinch the Deodhar Trophy with a five-wicket win over North Zone in Guwahati. This was West Zone’s 11th Deodhar Trophy title.Chasing a daunting 290, West Zone lost opener Vijay Zol in the seventh over. But then Manprit Juneja and the captain Parthiv Patel, both of whom scored half-centuries, added 87 runs at 6.21 runs per over to keep the chase on track. The stand was broken when Patel tried to flick legspinner Amit Mishra’s wrong one towards midwicket, providing a simple catch.Two more wickets had fallen after small intervals, and by the 30th over, they were placed at a tricky 175 for 4.Rayudu and Kedhar Jadhav batted together till the 43rd over, sharing a quick 87-run stand that took West Zone to a comfortable 262 for 4. Rayudu and Nayar saw them home with 10 balls remaining.North Zone’s innings, after they were put in to bat, revolved around two knocks of 88 and 67 by Unmukt Chand and Yuvraj Singh, both of whom finished as the leading run-getters in the Deodhar Trophy, with 144 runs.Yuvraj was the more aggressive of the two, scoring seven boundaries and three sixes in his 52-ball knock.Chand fell for a 124-ball 88, which was smartly constructed. He played slowly initially, but after reaching a half-century off 87 deliveries, accelerated, hitting three sixes and two fours, to score 38 runs off the next 37 balls. He perished in the 40th over, mishitting a hoick towards midwicket.Their third-wicket partnership of 120 built a solid platform for acceleration towards the end, which was done via a 13-ball 25 by Manpreet Gony and a 26-ball 32 by Parvez Rasool.