West Zone and East Zone got the J K Bose Twenty20 cricket tournament off to a good start at the Sports Journalists' Federation of India's 38th Annual Convention here today.
West crushed South by eight wickets at the Sardar Patel stadium in Motera, while East stunned defending champions North by nine wickets with at the Motera B stadium.
Electing to bat first, South were bowled out for 70 in 17.4 overs with the spin duo of Taus Rizvi (4-11) and Eithram Ali (3-6) causing maximum damage.
Roshan Thyagrajan (22) was the only batsman to cross the 20-run mark in an otherwise disappointing showing by the South batting line-up.
Ripple Christy (29 not out) and Ashwin Ferro's quickfire 24 saw West race to victory in just 8.2 overs.
In the other match of the day, Tauhid Talukdar's superb all-round show helped East start off their campaign with a win.
He took three for seven with the ball and contributed 33 with the bat as East won with 58 deliveries to spare.
