The expected keen tussle for the all important first innings fizzled out and North Zone ultimately took the Vijay Hazare Trophy (under-16) title with a degree of comfort on the third and final day at the RSI ground in Bangalore on Saturday.

When East Zone resumed their first innings on 219 for three in reply to North Zone's 491, the stage seemed set for a battle royal for the first innings lead which would almost certainly decide the fate of the trophy. Much of course depended on Ajay Garai who was batting on 66. He and the other overnight batsman A Iqbal took the score to 286 and things were hotting up. But then Iqbal was out for 47. He faced 106 balls and hit five of them to the ropes. The fourth wicket partnership between Garai and Iqbal was worth 97 runs off 33.4 overs.

Iqbal's dismissal triggered a collapse as A Sharma and A Juno brought the innings to a swift end. Garai was fifth out for 89. He faced 252 balls and hit 12 fours. Thereafter Ajith Kumar Singh scored a valuable 30 off 71 balls with four hits to the fence. But Sharma and Judo cut through the tail. East Zone lost their last five wickets for the addition of only five runs as they slid dramatically from 324 for five to 329 all out. Sharma finished with four for 87 overs while Juno took three for 46.

With the trophy in their pocket, North Zone stretched their lead of 90 runs to an overall 356 by scoring 266 for four wickets off just 47.1 overs in the second innings. Openers V Bhalla (67) and R Arora (71) put on 129 runs off 22.5 overs and D Soni (54) and P Dogra (45) also batted with gay abandon before the match was called off after 9.1 mandatory overs had been bowled.

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