North Zone survived a hurricane knock from Yusuf Pathan to beat West Zone by 49 runs and lift the Deodhar Trophy title at the Moti Bagh Stadium here on Tuesday.

On a pitch which offered turn and bounce to spinners, North Zone spinners Mukesh Sharma (five for 59) and Rahul Dewan (four for 18) had the last laugh as Pathan 's blistering 39 ball 80 went in vain.

Chasing 268 for a win, West Zone innings was comfortably placed at 83 for one when spinners Mukesh and Dewan struck in tandem. Bowling with guile and control, both Mukesh and Dewan induced false strokes from West Zone batsmen.

The innings was in disarray as North Zone lost five wickets for just 25 runs and was staring at defeat when Yusuf Pathan walked in.Pathan nonchalantly struck his first ball for a massive six to announce his intentions. Pathan went on to smote another eight sixes in an awesome display of power hitting as he single handedly threatened to take the match away from North Zone. It was a brilliant counterattacking innings from Pathan as bowlers treated were treated with disdain. Yusuf took just 18 balls to complete his 50 and at the other end Iqbal Abdulla lent good support and rotated the strike brilliantly. The duo added 105 runs for the seventh wicket at a frantic phase to take the fight to the enemy camp.

West Zone needed just 55 runs off 14 overs when North Zone captain Virat Kohli tossed the ball to Mukesh Sharma and the bowler obliged by luring the batsman into a false stroke and had him stumped by wicket keeper Kaul . Yusuf’s dismissal brought a quick end to West Zone innings as they lost the remaining three wickets for just five runs.

Earlier, North Zone innings revolved around a fighting knock from wicket keeper Uday Kaul (67) and his two half-century partnerships with Shikhar Dhawan (48) and captain Virat Kohli (29).North Zone innings went into a terminal decline after the dismissal of its captain Kohli in the 30th over.

The West Zone spinners Yusuf Pathan , Iqbal Abdulla , Ravinder Jadeja and Rohit Sharma kept pegging away and choked the flow of runs with their impeccable line and length. The wickets fell at regular intervals and North Zone appeared to have lost its way from a promising score of 155 for two it slipped to 232 for nine in the 48th over. It took a cameo knock from Jaskaran Singh (25 off seven balls which included three sixes) to lent respectability to the North Zone total.