Syed Mushtaq Ali 2017: East Zone claims title after brushing aside West Zone

East Zone clinched the 2017 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy as they went ahead and claimed their fourth win in as many games in the tournament. West Zone asked them to chase 150 to win the game Virat Singh and Ishank Jaggi scored half centuries at the top of the order and the case never extended beyond that.

Batting first, the West Zone got off to a decent start when Sheldon Jackson flayed the ball to all parts of the Wankhede Stadium. However, this was a lone warrior inning as Jackson was the only from among the batsmen who got going and scored substantial runs. The rest of the batting order simply failed to fire despite the wicket being good until Prerak Mankand and Rujul Bhatt lower down the order combined for a 53-run partnership.

Bhatt’s 36 that came off 20 balls with the help of three boundaries and a six took the team to 149 for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. Right-arm medium pacer Pritam Das was the pick of the bowlers as he got two wickets for 25 runs in his 4 overs.

East were strong in their response right from the start. The duo of Arun Karthik and Virat Singh got them off to a flier as they went ahead and simply slammed the West bowlers. Shardul Thakur bowled exceedingly well on the morning but despite getting 2 wickets he was expensive which diluted the effect.

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All the West Zone bowlers were being plundered for runs. Karthik fell to Thakur caught by the keeper Parthiv Patel. While Virat Singh reached his century initially, it was 28-year-old Jharkhand batsman Ishank Jaggi who stole the show with his quickfire knock.

The southpaw required just the 30 deliveries for scoring 56. What was even more impressive was the fact that these runs had come in an impressive compilation of 6 sixes. While he was on the field plundering the bowlers a good news arrived for him as Jaggi was added to the list of players for the IPL 2017 auction. East Zone overhauled target in 13.4 overs and thus they are now assured of the title of the tournament as well.

Brief Scores:

West Zone: 149/5 in 20 overs (S Jackson 52; P Das 2/25)

East Zone: 152/2 in 13.4 overs (Virat Singh 58*; S Thakur 2/31)