Expectations of a keen final were belied as East Zone romped to aneight wicket victory over West Zone to win the Col

Staff Reporter02-Jul-2001Expectations of a keen final were belied as East Zone romped to aneight wicket victory over West Zone to win the Col. Hemu AdhikariTrophy for the Inter-Academy title at the RSI grounds in Bangalore onMonday.Electing to bat, West Zone were shot out for 101 in 35 overs. Theywere given a good start with openers S Kukreja (21) and P Valthaty(47) putting on 65 runs off only 10.3 overs. The in-form Valthatydominated the stand and before he was first out, he had faced just 36balls and hit nine fours.After Valthaty’s fall, little went right for West Zone who actuallylost ten wickets for 36 runs off 24.4 overs. Apart from the openers,only R Solanki (11) reached double figures. Four batsmen failed toscore and N Behera brought the innings to a swift end by taking fourwickets for 15 off eight overs. T Saha gave a helping hand with twofor 10 off seven overs. Three run outs compounded West Zone’s misery.East Zone did not experience any difficulty in reaching their modesttarget. Openers A Garai (14) and R Jaiswal put on 58 runs off 11.5overs and the objective was achieved in just 21.5 overs. Jaiswalremained unbeaten with 60, compiled off 74 balls with seven hits tothe ropes. Both wickets to fall were taken by skipper Uday Karavadra.