East Zone keeps its nerve, prevails over South in an exciting finish
Arjun Kadhe & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Alex Hernandez & Manuel Sanchez 6-2, 6-3; Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Rinky Hijikata & Mac Kiger 6-3, 6-2.
$82,000 Challenger, Sarasota, USA: Doubles: Prequarterfinals:
Apart from those in the two dugouts, there were under 20 people in total at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium here for the final of the Interzonal MultiDay Trophy. South Zone needed one wicket to pull off a victory, East Zone needed six runs.
The audience
The audience was scorers, the doctors on call, ground staff, caterers, cameramen and logistics staff waiting to run in with the BCCI hoarding for the presentation ceremony, but everything paused as everyone stood waiting for the pendulum’s final swing.
Minnu Mani had the ball and was deftly using the cracks in the surface to pose questions to the East batters. On strike, precariously so, were Titas Sadhu and Annapurna Das.
It took 12 balls, a lucky boundary and some good running for East to seal a toocloseforcomfort onewicket win after three gruelling days in the sun.
East Zone coach Umesh Sethi had to keep encouraging the players to talk more to each other so the scorers could leave East’s wickets column alone.
Getting richer
Former India captain Shubhangi Kulkarni was in attendance to felicitate the winners, with East getting a cheque for ₹50 lakh for its triumph, while runnerup South got ₹20 lakh.
The scores:
South 133 and 179 lost to East 129 and 184/9 in 61.3 overs (Deepti Sharma 46, Richa Ghosh 33, Sahana Pawar 3/44, Minnu Mani 3/65).
PoM: Minnu Mani.
Playerofthetournament: Deepti Sharma.