Puducherry: Odisha Ranji skipper Subhranshu Senapati’s fine knock was not enough for East Zone as they went down by 5 wickets in their Deodhar Trophy clash here on Sunday.
Subhranshu went into bat at No. 3 after Abhimanyu Easwaran was dismissed with the total being 22 in the sixth over. Subhranshu and Jharkhand’s Virat Singh added 86 for the second wicket before the Odisha batter was stumped for 44, which came off 62 balls and included 5 boundaries.
Virat fell in the next over for 49, and then the innings disintegrated. East collapsed to 143 for 8 before a cameo (44 off 26 balls) by Bengal pacer Akash Deep helped them reach 229 in 46 overs.
South Zone cruised to their target with more than 5 overs to spare, thanks to half-centuries from skipper Mayank Agarwal (84) and talented youngster Sai Sudharshan (53).
The 26-year-old Subhranshu scored an unbeaten 33 in the first match to guide East to a 6-wicket victory over Central Zone, before making 13 against North Zone.
East Zone, currently second in the standings with 12 points from 4 matches, will qualify for the final if they beat West Zone in their final round-robin league fixture on August 1.
