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Defending champions West Zone rode on gritty half centuries from Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel to scramble past South Zone by two wickets and enter the Deodhar Trophy final, in Mumbai, on Monday.
Chasing an imposing 315 for victory in the second semi-final at the Wankhede stadium, West were struggling at 174 for 6 before Yadav (80 off 56 balls, 4 sixes, 7 fours) and No. 8 batsman Patel (64 not out off 38 balls) put together a match-winning stand of 70 runs off 76 balls that saw the hosts home with 17 balls to spare.
The seventh-wicket pair added a whopping 67 runs in the batting power play.
Though Yadav, dropped twice on 9 and 11, departed at 244, the left-handed Patel, who struck four sixes and five fours in his 38-ball essay, found an able partner in Shardul Thakur (31 not out in 23 balls) as West finished with 319 for eight in 47.1 overs.
Fittingly, the Gujarat youngster, who made a good impression in the series against Sri Lanka recently, hit the winning runs – a straight six – to complete a memorable win.
Top-order batsmen Sheldon Jackson (51) and Ambati Rayudu (54) had earlier put on 89 runs off 91 balls for the second wicket, but following their dismissals in quick succession, West Zone fell into trouble before Yadav and Patel bailed them out.
West, bidding for their fourth straight title, will meet East Zone at the same venue on December 3 in a day-night final.
Earlier, South's top-order feasted on some wayward bowling after being put in to bat by West and amassed 314 for six.
Half-centuries from Mayank Agarwal, Baba Aparajith, Manish Pandey and a well-made 47 by opener Robin Uthappa contributed to the imposing total.
In the morning, South got off to a rollicking start on the placid track, with openers Agarwal and Uthappa taking a heavy toll of some poorly directed bowling by West medium pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Thakur to put on a stand of 104 and lay a solid platform.
Agarwal top-scored with a stroke-filled 86 off 87 balls, inclusive of ten fours, while first-match centurion Aparajith scored 56 off 64 balls and Pandey smashed his way to 55 off 50 balls.
The two openers, with Agarwal being the more aggressive batsman, added 37 in the first five overs before Dominic Muthuswami brought things under control with a tight first spell, aided at the other end by Patel's tight left-arm spin.
Another fruitful stand of 76 runs in 74 balls followed between Agarwal and Aparajith, scorer of a century in the quarter-final win over Central, as the 150 came up in the 26th over.
Off-spinner Deepak Hooda had Agarwal, who was poised for his century, stumped with a wide ball down the leg side after the batsman scored at almost a run-a-ball and struck ten fours.
A short ball from Kulkarni in his second spell sent back Aparajith, who hit two fours and as many sixes (both off rival skipper Yusuf Pathan) and was caught at deep mid-wicket. These two wickets in a short span brought West back in the game.
However, South were aided by another 50-plus stand between Pandey, another contender from Karnataka who played some excellent improvised shots, and his state mate Karun Nair and then the side finished with a tall score by adding 53 runs in the last five overs.
Kulkarni ended up as the most successful bowler with 3 for 64, Thakur the most expensive and Domnic the most economical (1 for 44).
Spinners Patel and Yusuf went wicket-less.
Brief score: South Zone 314 for 6 (Robin Uthappa 47, Mayank Agarwal 86, Baba Aparajith 56, Manish Pandey 55; Dhawal Kulkarni 3-64) lost to West Zone 319 for 8 in 47.1 overs (Sheldon Jackson 51, Ambati Rayudu 54, Suryakumar Yadav 80, Axar Patel not out 64, Shardul Thakur not out 31; Vinay Kumar 2-70, Stuart Binny 3-66) by 2 wickets.
Image: West Zone's Axar Patel during his gritty knock against South Zone in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final at the Wankhede stadium on Monday.
Photograph: PTI