Mumbai: Captain Manoj Tiwary continued his blazing form in domestic competitions with a magnificent 151 that powered East Zone to a comfortable 52-run win over North in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final, here on Sunday.
Courtesy Manoj’s career-best one-day knock that came off only 121 balls, East scored 273/8 in 50 overs. Chasing, North were never really in contention as a disciplined bowling effort saw them get all out for 221 in 47.1 overs.
Fittingly, it was the East Zone captain who winded up the innings with the wicket of Sandeep Sharma. Senior Bengal off-spinner Saurashis Lahiri (3/41) bowled brilliantly with able support from Biplab Samantray (2/51), Ashok Dinda (2/59) and Shahbaz Nadeem (1/34).
However, the day belonged to Manoj, who certainly staked a strong claim to be included in the 30-member preliminary squad for the World Cup, as well as a berth in the team for the tri-series Down Under.
In the past one month, Manoj has scored a century each in Duleep Trophy (versus West Zone), Vijay Hazare Trophy (Vidarbha) and now in Deodhar Trophy (North Zone).
Sunday’s innings had 15 boundaries and four sixes. As usual, he was pretty severe on spinners, especially Amit Mishra (1/60 in 9 overs). Even Rishi Dhawan (2/53) and Sandeep Sharma (2/49), who were economical in the beginning, were treated with disdain in the death overs.
Manoj’s 151 is the second highest individual score in Deodhar Trophy after Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan’s 158 for South Zone versus Central in Jaipur in 2004. Manoj first upped the ante when he stepped out to offie Parveez Rasool, hitting him for a six and a four off successive deliveries.
He then paced his innings to a nicety though he lost partners at regular intervals after putting on 60 for the third wicket with opener Shreevats Goswami (43 in 61 balls), to pull the stuttering innings around from 33 for two.
Manoj raced from 100 to 150 in just 27 balls – striking 5 fours and 3 sixes – with the last two overs bowled by Rishi Dhawan and Sandeep Sharma taken for 34 runs.
North were never in the match save a partnership between Punjab boys Mandeep Singh (40) and Gurkeerat Singh Mann (83), who added 74 runs for the fourth wicket.
