North win despite Mane hundred
A heroic unbeaten 127 by Vinayak Mane wasn't enough to take his side to victory, as North Zone, helped by Sarandeep Singh's 4 for 99, squeaked to a 21-run win in a tense, low-scoring thriller and booked a place in the final
Wisden Cricinfo staff
02-Mar-2004
North Zone 279 and 191 beat West Zone 172 and 277 (Mane 127*, Martin 50, Sarandeep 4-99) by 21 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
A heroic unbeaten 127 by Vinayak Mane wasn't enough to take his side to victory, as North Zone, helped by Sarandeep Singh's 4 for 99, squeaked to a 21-run win in a tense, low-scoring thriller and booked a place in the final.
Resuming from their overnight total of 92 for 2, Mane and Jacob Martin took the total to 148, but the slide began immediately after Martin reached 50, when he was nailed by Sarandeep. West Zone then lost wickets at regular intervals to slump to 225 for 7. Mane and Rakesh Patel threatened a revival, adding 43 for the eighth wicket, before Patel was caught behind off Amit Bhandari for 25 (268 for 8). West needed a further 31 at that stage, but managed only nine more as Bhandari and Dinesh Mongia cleaned up the tail.
Mane's gallant effort took all of 405 minutes and 249 balls. It was the second time in the match that a batsman had carried his bat through an innings: in North Zone's second innings, Gautam Gambhir had made an unbeaten 111 out of his team's 191.