At the M A Chidambaram stadium, West defeated Central by four wickets. It was Central's third reverse in as many matches. Central, who opted to bat first, were restricted to a threadbare total of 192. The West bowling was spearheaded by captain Rajesh Pawar, who claimed five wickets.

For Central, save for Asif Murtuza (55), Manoj Srivastava (50) and Sunil Dholpure (34 n.o.) others failed to make an impact. Left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar, with his teasing flight unsettled the opposition and deceived them.

In his first spell, he bagged two wickets giving away only eight runs. He scalped three more in the second spell to end up with a striking figures of 10-0-32-5.

Right-arm medium pacer Swapnil Hazare and off-spinner Firaz Bhabaniya chipped in usefully with two wickets apiece.

West began well with openers Vivek Gandhi (42) and Dhiraj Jadhav (26)taking the total to 84 in 28.1 overs but with the openers back in the dressing room, they lost wickets too often. However, wicket-keeper and vice captain Niraz Patel stayed at one end with an unbeaten 48 (77b, 2x4) to carry the defending champions home.

At Gurunanak College grounds, scintillating knocks by skipper Y Venugopala Rao (73 n.o) and Rajat Bhatia (69) enabled South romp home with a striking eight-wicket victory over North.

Scores

North: 194 in 50 overs (Ajay Ratra 45, Sohail Rouf 30) lost to South 197 for 2 in 47.2 overs (Roland Barrington 26, Rajat Bhatia 69, Y Venugopal Rao 73 n.o).

Central 192-9 in 50 overs (Asif Murtuza 55, Manoj Srivastava 50, Sunil Dholpure 34 n.o., Rajesh Pawar 5-32) lost to West 193-6 in 47.3 overs (Vivek Gandhi 42, Dhiraj Jadhav 26, Niraz Patel 48 n.o.).