A measured and watchful innings by Rohan Gavaskar guided East Zone to a one-wicket last ball victory over South Zone in the Deodhar Trophy limited-overs match at the Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Gavaskar, who scored an unbeaten 79, took two runs off the last ball of the final over by K Shahabuddin to steer his team to victory.
The southpaw, who hit seven fours, stitched a crucial 77- run partnership for the fifth wicket with Deep Dasgupta (39).
Earlier in the innings, an explosive 56 by opener Parvez Aziz set the tone for East Zone, who were chasing a competitive target of 271.
Parvez hit 11 fours and a six.
His first 30 runs were all in boundaries; he was finally dismissed by R Vinaykumar in the 11th over.
Though South Zone bowlers D Kalyankrishna, K Sahabuddin and P Ojha picked two wickets each they could not prevent Gavaskar and the East Zone tail-enders from scoring the crucial runs in the final overs.
Gavaskar's last minute trick with the bat overshadowed an elegant 107 by South Zone opener Swapnil Asnodkar.
In a run-a-ball innings Swapnil struck 14 fours. He first partnered skipper V V S Laxamn (35) in an 89-run second-wicket stand and then went on to put a 73-run third wicket partnership with Venugopal Rao (30).
The 23-year-old batsmen from Goa finally perished to A Zhunzhunwala after taking his team's score past the 200 mark in just 38 overs.
However, South Zone lost its way after his dismissal.
Arjun Yadav (25), S Badrinath (11), K Sahabuddin (10) and Kalyankrishan (0) got out in quick succession.
South, who were looking to post a score in addition to 300, finally folded up for 270 for 8.
Rahul Bose and S S Singh, who took two wickets each, were the notable East Zone bowlers.
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