VIZIANAGARAM: North Zone shattered South’s hopes of a cup double by pulling off a dramatic four wicket win on the fourth and final day to wrest the Cooch Behar Trophy, at the Vizzy Stadium here ‘on Tuesday.
The victory enabled North to avenge their defeat in the overs limit final at the hands of south, which saw the latter retain the C.LK. Naidu Trophy last Friday.
The heroes of North’s well deserved triumph were the dashing Yogender Bhandari who hit themselves away from trouble when South’s bowlers were slowly gaining ascendance, Bogra and Bhandari with their cavalier approach tilted the scales in their team’s favor, both notching up half centuries.
It was their fielding that let South down. Not a single fielder could stop the ball in first attempt and their catching was poor. Of course, there were two occasions when Sarat and David did come with fine prick and throws hitting the stumps directly to bring off the two runs out in North’s second innings, but they were more of a fluke.
North started the final day set to get 196 for win with nine wickets in hand, They began cautiously but could not deny early success to South who struck through the danger man the leg spinner Ananta Padmanabhan, Shara wat tried to cut the bowler and the sharp chance was taken well by Srinath in the slips and the visitors lost a wicket for the addition of only seven runs.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 3, 1989
