Manoj Tiwary on way to his 75, in Mumbai, on Wednesday

Mumbai: East Zone put up a sterling all-round display to defeat holders West Zone by 24 runs, in a keenly contested day-night final of the Deodhar Trophy, regaining the limited-over inter zonal title after a gap of ten seasons.

East rode on crucial half-century knocks from one-down Virat Singh (54), captain Manoj Tiwary (75) and Biplab Samantray (60) to recover from a sorry-reading five for two, and post a challenging score of 269 for eight.

Set an asking rate of 5.4, West Zone, bidding for their 13th crown and fourth on the trot, also rallied from a poor start after being anchored by a well-measured innings of 97 off 91 balls, by diminutive Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav.

However, they fell short of the target to be all out for 245 in 47.2 overs in the face of some very tight bowling by East, led superbly by Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda. Dinda capturing three wickets in his first six-over spell and then came back at the death to take the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav (35) and end West’s hopes.

They kept the free-scoring lower-order batsmen of West in control in the batting power play as well as the last 10 overs, to help East triumph for the fifth time in the tournament’s history, the last time being in 2003-04.

Dinda ended with superb figures of 4/33, while left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem captured 2/42 and medium pacer Samantray secured 2/52. Other bowlers also give them good support in defending the score on a flat track.

Akshar Patel and Shardul Thakur briefly threatened to take away the game, but East bowlers and fielders kept their wits and sent both back in time to stop West Zone’s march.

Earlier, electing to bat, East built their total around Tiwary’s 92-ball 75, Singh’s 54 in 84 balls and Samantray’s blistering 60 off 50 balls.

After the fall of two early wickets by the fourth over, East were revived by a century partnership for the third wicket between skipper and man-in-form Tiwary and one-down batsman Singh.

Later, Samantray struck a few lusty blows in making a hard-hitting half ton, inclusive of one six and seven fours to take the score past 250.

Opting to bat first, East commenced on a poor note, losing openers Shreevats Goswami and Ishank Jaggi with only five on board. Both fell to poor shots chasing wide balls, edging to the wicketkeeper.

Then came the rebuilding phase with Tiwary, who struck four sixes and three fours, again acting as the fulcrum of the innings in his 135-run stand off 165 balls, with left-handed Virat Singh.

Tiwary, who had staked a strong claim for the Indian World Cup preliminary squad of 30 to be picked on Thursday with a sterling knock of 151 in the semi-final against North Zone, looked in prime touch from the first ball he had faced.

He danced down the wicket and smacked his counterpart Yusuf Pathan for two sixes in one over, after smashing Akshar over the straight field. But he was lucky when wicketkeeper Smit Patel put him down off the next ball.

Virat was the man to depart, caught at long off while trying to clear the rope after hitting six fours. Tiwary, who advanced down the track to smack the spinners, left eight runs later — caught in the deep off Dhawal Kulkarni — and it was a big setback for East.

But Samantray played well and outshone senior partner Saurabh Tiwary (29) during their enterprising stand of 75 runs in only 70 balls. Thanks to Samantray’s attacking innings and a quick 21 by Kumar Deobrat, East set West a challenging task.

The last 10 overs produced 81 runs, including 46 in the last five, while the batting power play yielded 35 runs.