Central stun North Zone, East Zone humble South

Mumbai: Central Zone upstaged star-studded North Zone by four runs in a close match to remain in the hunt for the title in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Inter-Zonal League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, on Wednesday.

Central, put in to bat, posted a competitive 167 for seven in their 20 overs before they restricted North, who at one stage threatened to reach the target when Yuvraj Singh (33 in 20 balls with four sixes) lashed three sixes in the 18th over, at 163 for six.

It was Central's second victory in three games while they dumped their rivals to their second defeat in three games.

In the first game of the day, East Zone drubbed South Zone by six wickets with two balls to spare to notch their second win in as many matches.

East powered past the target of 179, set by South, courtesy of a whirlwind knock of 90 in 51 balls by Ishank Jaggi who smacked the listless rival bowling attack to strike four sixes and 11 fours.

In the afternoon's North vs Central match, leggie Karn Sharma emerged the bowling hero for Central by packing off openers Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan and rival captain Harbhajan Singh, who promoted himself to one-down, to leave North in trouble. .

In the Central innings, captain and wicket keeper Naman Ojha played sensibly to make 48 off 34 balls while Mahesh Rawat remained unconquered on 57 in 40 balls to help the team recover from 40 for three.

Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh grabbed three and two wickets respectively.
Earlier in the day, Jharkhand batsman Jaggi, caught off a no-ball off Vijay Shankar.
This was decided through television replay when on 39.

Brief scores: South Zone 178 for six (M Agarwal 72, R Vinay Kumar 68, Manoj Tiwary 3/31) lost to East Zone: 181 for four (I Jaggi 90, Saurabh Tiwary 33);
Central Zone: 167 for seven (N Ojha 48, M Rawat 57no; A Nehra 3/26, Harbhajan Singh 2/35) bt North Zone: 163 for six (S Dhawan 37, Yuvraj Singh 33, Karn Sharma 3/17).