An enterprising century by Rakesh Mohanty (100) helped East Zone enter the finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy Under-16 tournament as the match ended in a draw. East Zone entered the next stage by virtue of their 43 run first innings lead over Central Zone on the third and final day at the RSI Grounds in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Resuming the day at the score of 199 for 5, Rakesh Mohanty and Bignesh Mohanty (30) were engaged in a valuable sixth wicket partnership worth 85 runs. Rakesh Mohanty in the process completed his fifty in 129 minutes off 94 balls. With the scores at level, Bignesh Mohanty was out caught by Ali Akbar off Rahat Ali in the 100th over of the innings. Rakesh duly completed a well deserved century off 172 balls which included 13 hits to the fence. Rakesh departed soon after reaching the milestone, caught by Tahir Abbas in the first slip off Praveen Gupta with the score on 306. With the fall of Rakesh saw a procession as East lost their last three wickets with the addition of just seven runs to be allout for 313.

With nothing much to play for, Central in their second innings scored 144 runs losing three wickets of 37 overs. Openers Rahat Ilahi (50) and Shivakanth Shukla (25) added 51 runs in 11.1 overs. Shukla was the first to be dismissed wehn Mayukh Biswas held on to the catch at long on off SK Roy. Then Ali Akbar (30) forged a partnership of 57 runs for the second wicket with Ilahi, before Ilahi offered a catch to Biswas at mid wicket off A Iqbal. With only two more runs added to the total, Biswas came into the the action again, holding on to a chance offered by Akbar off S Biswas. A Alam (14) and V Yadav (20) were at the crease at stumps. East meet North in the three-day final to be played in Bangalore from 8-10 February.

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