da jogodeouro： West Zone proved today that they are the side to watch after Air Indiaand Indian Railways
da bwin： Anand Vasu05-Apr-2000West Zone proved today that they are the side to watch after Air Indiaand Indian Railways. Their skipper Kalyani stole the show with anunbeaten 75. When West came out to bowl, they put on a thoroughlyprofessional show, skittling out North Zone for 120 and won the matcheasily by 48 runs.Losing the toss for the fourth consecutive time, West Zone were put into bat at the India Pistons CPT Ground. Newcomer Triptimani Rocqueopened the batting with Amrutha Shinde. Amrutha, who has scoredproficiently in the series thus far was in good nick, middling theball well from the start. In three games she has made scores of 29,59and 44. The North Zone medium pacers Asha Jain and Vandana bowledstraight up and down, not attempting anything fancy. Striving for theyorker they delivered more full tosses than they would have liked andwere eased through the off side.Though she was solid, Triptimani could not get the ball into the gapsand struggled to rotate the strike. After a longish stay at thecrease, she drove a ball on the up straight back to Asha Jain.Bending low, the bowler snapped up the catch and sent the West Zoneopener on her way for just 1.At the fall of the first wicket, the West Zone captain walked out tothe middle. Kalyani seemed in no hurry at all. In the company ofAmrutha, Kalyani settled into a good rhythm. Driving the ball firmlyinto the outfield, the two ran hard. They kept the scoreboard tickingover and kept the fielders on their toes.After making a quick 28, Amrutha played down the wrong line to an AshaJain delivery and was bowled. Vice captain Sunetra Paranjpe replacedAmrutha at the wicket and began slowly. Not attempting to drive hard,Sunetra grafted for runs, but could make only 14 before she wastrapped LBW by Anjuman.Arti Vaidya who usually opens the innings went in at the fall of thethird wicket. She looked comfortable and once again West Zone had agood partnership going.Asha Jain and Vandana Gupta bowled long spells, finishing their fullcomplement of overs on the trot. While this strategy has been employedsuccessfully by other teams in the tournament, it did not do NorthZone much good today. Both bowlers were visibly tired and dropped paceby the end of their spells. Asha ended with 2/32 off her 10 overswhile Vandana finished with none for 27 off ten.Arti Vaidya attempting to boost the scoring rate played the ballairily through the on side but could not clear the fielder at midwicket. Her 12 runs came off 23 balls.Sangeeta Kamat followed but did not last long. After she had made justfour, she lofted the ball straight to Asha Jain off the bowling ofReema Malhotra.While wickets fell at one end, Kalyani went from strength tostrength. Having taken her time to settle down, Kalyani opened upafter she had got some runs on the board. Playing the ballpredominantly along the ground, the West Zone captain moved swiftly toher half century. After crossing the landmark, Kalyani went after thespinners in right earnest, hitting across the line withease. Employing her favourite hoick through midwicket, Kalyani tookWest Zone to a sizable total.Wicketkeeper Ashwini Nadkarni back in the side for this encounter, ranhard, keeping her captain good company. Converting ones to twos andtwos to threes, the pair motored along till Ashwini was run out.Sonali Chandok, the last batswoman, came out to bat in the final overof the innings. Coming down the wicket to Reema Malhotra, Sonaliattempted a wild heave over the on side but missed the ballcompletely. Gurdeep Kaur behind the stumps whipped the bails off andthe West Zone innings came to an end at 168 in 49.1 overs.Unbeaten and unscathed, Kalyani walked off the field to generousapplause having made 75, one of the highest individual scores of thetournament. This innings follows her unbeaten 50 against South Zone.North Zone had no answer to the accuracy of the West Zonebowlers. Opening the bowling and completing her quota of 10 overswithout a break, Neelima Choudry once again proved that accuracy iseverything in limited overs cricket. Yesterday against IndianRailways, she bowled her 10 overs for just 10 runs. Today she betteredthat performance and ended with figures of 10-5-7-1. This reallychoked North Zone for runs. Though they did not lose wicketsinitially, the rate of scoring was so slow that the pressure began tomount. With every passing over, the asking rate crept up.When off spinner Sonali Chandok was brought on to bowl, Gulshan triedto ease the tension by slogging her over the on side. Beaten in theair, she ended up hitting the ball straight down Sangeetha Kamat’sthroat at mid wicket.At the 40 over mark, North Zone had just under 100 runs on theboard. The game was all but over and the formalities were completed bySangeetha Kamat and Amrutha Shinde, the former bowling hermediumpacers wicket to wicket. Helping herself to 4/25 off nine oversshe proved to be a good foil for Amrutha whose fast leg breaks weretoo much for the tailenders.With the sun blazing down, and players tired, the game ended in the49th over when North Zone were bowled out. West Zone now have threewins from four games and will enjoy a well earned rest daytomorrow. Their next match is against Air India and will probablyprove to be the toughest of the lot.
