Gandhi century sees East Zone home by nine wickets

In one of two opening matches of the 2003 edition of the Deodhar Trophy, East Zone comprehensively dominated West Zone to win their tie at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, by nine wickets.

Winning the toss, West Zone opted to take first strike, but they could not maximise the advantage. Apart from Vinayak Mane, who came in at number three, no batsman could really get going, and Mane's 43 (67b, 3x4) was consequently the highest score of the innings.

For East Zone, veteran spinner Utpal Chatterjee took three wickets from nine tight overs that conceded only 25 runs. He was well backed up by Rohan Gavaskar and Pravanjan Mullick, who took two wickets apiece.

Bowled out for 173, West Zone did not have the runs to defend, but even if they did, Debang Gandhi may well have chased those down too. Gandhi was in good form, hitting a sparkling 109 off just 112 balls, with 12 fours and two sixes. He was given good support by opener MS Dhoni (55, 97b, 1x4, 1x6), and the pair took East Zone to a nine-wicket win in 35 overs.