WD Balaji Rao played a considerable role in South Zone's ascent to become joint owners of the Deodhar Trophy in December. Scheduled just after the India-Zimbabwe one-day series, South, like the other teams, were missing their established stars. The absence of both Sunil Joshi and Aashish Kapoor created an opening in the spin department for Balaji Rao, which he grabbed with alacrity. Having gone wicketless in the quarter-final where South overcame East comfortably by seven wickets, Balaji Rao reserved his best for the clash against holders North Zone in the next round.

After North Zone had won the toss and elected to bat at Kanpur's Green Park, the legspinner claimed four of the last six wickets to send North stumbling from 154/4 to 225 all out. Dinesh Mongia was his first victim, knocking back a return catch for 23. Next, he bowled opener Vijay Dahiya who had been a thorn in South's flesh en route to compiling 79. Ten balls later, Balaji Rao trapped Rahul Sanghvi leg before and followed it up by having Gagandeep Singh stumped by wicket keeper LNP Reddy. His final figures read 4/44 off nine overs. South's batsmen held their nerve to win by three wickets in the penultimate over.

In the final at Lucknow's KD Singh `Babu' stadium four days later, South put Central into bat only to see them rattle off 298/8 in their 50 overs, thanks to Amay Khurasiya's blistering 86. Balaji Rao went unrewarded in an eight over spell, conceding 46 in the bargain. All South's batting bastions fell by the wayside leaving only VVS Laxman to carry the fight to the North camp. But Laxman was seventh out for 91 at 254 and when Kumaran and Reddy were run out in the following over, it looked curtains for South. No.s 10 and 11, Balaji Rao and Raju were at the crease with 41 needed off 24 balls, a seemingly impossible task.

The pair just kept their heads till the last over, nudging the score along, and always keeping the asking rate within reasonable limits. Balaji Rao was the more enterprising of the two, with four fluent boundary hits that kept South in the hunt whenever the asking rate threatened to spiral out of reach. They whittled down the target to such good effect that just 11 were needed from the last over by Mohd. Kaif.

The first five deliveries produced ten, thanks to a six by Raju, but scampering for the winning run, he was run out and the match ended in a tie. Balaji Rao returned unbeaten on 31 off 20 balls. "It's the best I've seen him bat", said Robin Singh, his captain at India Pistons and Tamil Nadu. If he can get even better, he'd be doing his prospects no harm at all.