West & East Zone maintains winning run in JK Bose T20

AHMEDABAD: West Zone and East Zone maintained their winning run on Day Two of the JK Bose T20 cricket tournament at the Sports Journalists' Federation of India's 38th Annual Convention at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad yesterday.

West Zone, who beat South Zone in their opening game on Sunday, registered another easy win by crushing defending champions North by 72 runs, while East Zone beat South Zone by seven wickets.

Captain Devendra Pandey led the way for West with a fluent half-century, hitting 51 from 39 balls. Taus Rizvi provided the sparks at the end with a quickfire 44 from 20 balls and Ahmedabad's Ripple Christy made 28 from 24 balls to propel West to a huge 189 for three in their 20 overs. In reply, North finished on 117 for six in their 20 overs, with Chandra Shekhar Luthra top scoring with 49.

Meanwhile, Sports Journalists' Association of Mumbai (SJAM) ‘A' team comprising Ashwin Ferro and Amol Karhadkar stormed into the final of the AC Bali Trophy table tennis tournament. In the semi-final, SJAM team defeated Sports Writers Association (SWAB) ‘B' by a convincing 2-0 margin at the St Xavier's School, Loyala Hall yesterday. Ferro gave SJAM the perfect start by getting the better of Shashank Kishore 11-8, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5 and then Amol Karhadkar defeated Anand Vasu 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-4 for a comprehensive 2-0 result.

Mumbai's TT challenge
The Mumbai boys will take on SWAB ‘A' team consisting of R Kaushik and Roshan Thayagarajan in the team final today.
SWAB ‘A' were stretched by Assam in their semis as Kaushik beat Subodh Malla Barua, but Roshan T lost to Tauhid Talukdar. In the doubles, Kaushik and Roshan defeated the pair of Subodh and Tauhid. In the singles competition, Kaushik beat Rayan Rosario of Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists Association 3-1 to make it to the final against Ferro. In the other semi-final, Ferro eased past Talukdar 11-7, 11-9, 11-8.