North Zone inflicted a crushing 237 run defeat inside three days over East Zone in their Duleep Trophy clash at Guwahati's North-East Frontier Railway Stadium on Saturday. Chasing 394 for victory, East crumbled for the second time in the match, submitting meekly for 156 in just three hours. The victory, worth eight points, kept North Zone at the head of the pack with 18 points from three games.

After Aashish Nehra, first innings wrecker-in-chief, dismissed Nikhil Haldipur in the third over, Shiv Sunder Das and Rashmi Parida compiled the highest stand of the innings. Their 49 run association was broken when Reetinder Sodhi sent back Das for 27, which turned out to be the top score. Parida and Sanjay Raul fell soon after to leave East at 71/4. The left arm spin of Rahul Sanghvi then took out Rohan Gavaskar and Sukhbinder Singh in the space of five balls.

Wicket keeper Deep Dasgupta, who struck a bright 25 in 32 balls inclusive of four boundaries, was ejected by Nehra to leave East at 106/7. Utpal Chatterjee and Mihir Diwakar added 44 for the ninth wicket in a last flicker of resistance before both fell in successive balls.

Sanghvi polished off the match, packing off Mohanty for a fifth ball duck. East's second innings had lasted all of 40.2 overs. Sanghvi finished with 4/17, the off spinner Sharandeep not being used at all. Nehra scalped three for a costly 76 runs in 15 overs, collecting match figures of 10/90. East stay at a lowly five points from two games.

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