Dhoni strikes form, in Twenty-20 see-saw

Kolkata, Apr 5 (UNI) While Mahendra Singh Dhoni showed semblance of his batting prowess in Jharkhand's match against Asom, it became evident that the Zonal Twenty-20 meet was a farce with most of the smaller teams hardly equpped to play this format of the game.

Dhoni scored a 21-ball 37, hit five boundaries and a six. But three of those fours came from horrendous misfields, Asom captain J Arun Kumar being the culprit once.

Arun Kumar said, '' The boys have never played this version of the game and they are not used to it. We were basically going through the motions, it's tough outside. '' Jharkhand easily usurped Asom's modest target of 141 with 17 balls to spare, winning by eight wickets.

Opener Manish Vardhan led the Jharkhand attack with a fine 47-ball 64. But the short blitzkrieg from Dhoni was enough to sent his fans, a motley crowd of people, into raptures.

Earlier, Shahbaz Nadim ripped Asom apart with figures of three for 20.

Parvej Aziz was the lone man, who stood tall amongst the ruins, scoring 65 from 42 deliveries.

In the first match of the day, Orissa humbled Tripura by 42 runs, maintaining an all-win record in the competition. P Jayachandra and RR Das both scored 41 as Orissa posted 140 on board.

Tripura were bundled out for 98 in 17.3 overs. Paresh Patel picked up four for 11 from 3.3 overs and was ably supported by Niranjan Behra who went home with figures of three for 11.

Brief scores: Asom 141/9 (P Aziz not out 65; S Nadim 3/20) v Jharkhand 143/2 (M Vardhan not out 64, MS Dhoni not out 37).

Orissa: 140/6 (P Jayachandra 41, RR Das 41) v Tripura 98 (S Choudhury 27; P Patel 4/11, N Behera 3/11).

UNI