East Zone Cricket Academy scored a comfortable 116-run victory over South Zone Cricket Academy on the opening day of the inter-academy tournament for the Col. Hemu Adhikari Trophy at the Central College Ground in Bangalore on Thursday.

Put in to bat, East Zone did well in running up a total of 258 for nine in 50 overs. They lost two wickets for 38 but then S Biswal and N Behera added 61 runs for the third wicket off 13 overs to initiate a recovery process. Behara was out for 26 but then with AS Chowdhury, Biswal figured in a fifth wicket association of 80 runs off 16.2 overs. Chowdhury then left for 37. Biswal was sixth out at 217 in the 47th over. He was rather unlucky to miss his century by three runs. He faced 123 balls and hit eleven fours. Skipper M Diwakar kept the innings going with a bright 32 off 16 balls with two fours and three sixies and East Zone were able to post a challenging target.

The East Zone opening bowlers SS Sarkar and Diwakar soon got among the wickets and South Zone were hopelessly placed at 29 for four in the ninth over. The middle order consisting of BMV Uthappa (42), CJ William (31) and RV Gomez (22) put up some fight but this was in the nature of too little, too late. All they succeeded was in narrowing the margin of victory before South Zone were all out for 142 in 33.1 overs. T Saha was the most successful bowler with three for 33 while Diwakar, Sarkar and R Mohanty finished with two wickets each.

© CricInfo