Vishakapatnam: Off-spinner Kritika and opening batswomen Rashmi Shivshankar helped South Zone defeat Central Zone by eight wickets in the Chandra Tripathy Inter-Zonal Junior Women's cricket tournament being held in Vishakapatnam.

In the match played at the Railway Institute Stadium, South skipper Karuna Jain won the toss and invited Central Zone to bat. With a very thick and lush green outfield, Central struggled to get the ball past the South Zone fielders. Left-arm seamer Pooja Shah kept a very tight line and length while the tall right-arm medium pacer Laxmi Priya picked up two early wickets.

The Central Zone side that had beaten East Zone, struggled against the South Zone bowlers. Off-spinner Kritika was the pick of the bowlers. She stuck to basics and picked up three wickets conceding just six runs from five overs.

Leg-spinner Deepika Babu got two for 17 while Sunitha Vasudevan got one for five from five overs. Aparajita Bansal was the only batsman to last a while. She consumed 72 balls to score 19 with a solitary four.

With thick clouds threatening to spoil South Zone's chances of an outright victory, Rashmi Shivshankar and Sindhu went hammer and tongs after the Central bowlers. They put on 63 runs off just 11 overs before Rashmi was out for a well made 40 inclusive of five boundaries. Sindhu followed her five balls later, caught at silly-point off left-arm spinner Preeti Dimri who was very impressive. Diana David and Savita Nirala took a little time to settle down but finished the game in South's favour. Rashmi Shivshankar was adjudged the Eve of the Match.

With this win, South are the favourites to win the championship. South now have to play East on Sunday and will meet North on the 21st.

Brief Scores:

Central Zone 96 for 9 from 40 overs (Aparajita Bansal 19, Kritika 3 for 6, Deepika Babu 2 for 17, Lakshmi Priya 2 for 19) lost to South Zone 98 for 2 from 23 overs (Rashmi Shivshankar 40, Sindhu A 17, Diana David 16 no, Savitha Nirala 13 no) by 8 wickets.

In the second match of the day, North Zone beat East Zone by 27 runs. Due to heavy over night rains, the game could begin only at 2 pm with only 20 overs a side possible.

On a damp wicket, North did well to score 82 for five with Rupali 19 not out, Seema 15 and Anureeth Kaur 15 making useful contributions. Arpita Ghosh picked up two for 20 for East.

East Zone struggled from the word go and five run outs only added to their woes. In an attempt to overhaul a modest 84, East were shot out for a paltry 55 from 14.5 overs. Payal Deb with eleven was the only batsman to get into double figures. Rupali and Devinder with figures of 2 for 3 and 2 for 8 respectively were the successful bowlers for North.

Brief Scores:

North Zone 82 for 5 in 20 overs (Rupali 19 not out, Seema 15, Anureeth Kaur 15, Arpita Ghosh 2 for 20) beat East Zone 55 all out in 14.5 overs (Payal Deb 11, Rupali 2 for 3, Devinder 2 for 8) by 27 runs.