Women's Inter-Zonal Trophy: Deepti Sharma leads East Zone to final

Deepti Sharma-led East Zone crushed North Zone by 135 runs in the semi-final of the Women's Inter Zonal Multi-Day trophy to set up a summit clash with South Zone, who played out a draw against West Zone on Friday.

Despite having conceded a slender lead of 12 runs in the first innings, a strong show with the bat in the second essay put East Zone in a dominant position.

They declared their second innings for 282/9 to set North Zone a target of 271 runs.

Deepti claimed 6/49, while Annapurna Das took 3/21 as North Zone was shot out for a paltry 135 in 48.2 overs — their second low score in the game after making 144 in the first essay.

For the East Zone, right-arm fast bowler Titas Sadhu bowled a fine spell of 5-1-19-1 while accounting for opening batter Priya Punia.

Shafali Verma missed out on a personal milestone as she fell for 49 (66 balls, 8x4s, 1x6s) whereas India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur once again flopped with the bat, falling for a mere five after making 10 in the first innings.

In the other semifinal, South Zone advanced to the final after playing out a draw against the West Zone.

Resuming their second innings at 58 for two after taking a lead of 59 runs in the first innings, South Zone went on to pile up the runs as they were 262 for five with an overall lead of 321 runs when the game was called off.

Opening batter Miriyala Durga scored 81 from 205 balls with 12 fours but Tamanna Nigam, who had made 55 in the first innings, was unfortunate to have missed out on a deserving century, falling for 99 from 200 balls with 16 fours.

Nigam and Durga were involved in a 132-run stand for the third wicket.