West Zone were crowned Duleep trophy champions on Monday after a gap of three seasons when they defeated East Zone by five wickets with more than two days to spare in the five-day final at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera in Ahmedabad.

West, thus, became the most successful zone in the championship by clinching their 16th title, including thrice as joint winners, in the four and a half decade old tourney. North have lifted the crown on 15 occasions.

A strokeful unbeaten sixth wicket partnership between wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel and seasoned Jacob Martin helped West overcome a fighting East, led by former India captain Sourav Ganguly, on the third day of the match.

Martin, who scored a watchful 52 not out in 135 balls, hit the winning run. His crucial 66-run unbroken partnership with the diminutive Patel, who scored a quickfire 39 off 40 balls with six fours, steered West to the victory target after they were struggling at 109 for 5 chasing 175 in a low-scoring tie.

It was an impressive outing for Patel, striving to make a comeback into the national team. He had top-scored with 43 in the West first innings and also effected eight dismissals, including five in the East second innings, in the match.

In the morning East, resming at 176 for 9 in the second innings, were all out for 181. They had trailed West by seven runs in the first innings.

The winners are to receive Rs 5 lakhs as prize money while runners-up East will get Rs 2.5 lakhs, according to the Gujarat Cricket Association officials.

Scorecard

East Zone (1^st innings): 150

West Zone (1^st innings): 157

East Zone (2nd innings):
Arindam Das c P Patel b Khan 0
S S Das c Christian b Khan 13
V Saravanan run out 11
R Gavaskar c P Patel b R Patel 13
S Ganguly lbw Khan 0
D Dasgupta c Bahutule b Powar 61
L R Shukla st P Patel b Bahutule 66
S Lahiri b Khan 0
S Nadeem st P Patel b Bahutule 5
R Bose lbw b Bahutule 4
S S Paul not out 0.
Extras: (lb-4, nb-4) 8
Total: (all out in 59.1 overs) 181

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-23, 3-35, 4-35, 5-39, 6-159, 7-161, 8-176, 9-176.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 17-3-41-4, Rakesh Patel 7-1-35-1, Sairaj Bahutule 18.1-5-39-3, Munaf Patel 11-2-27-0, Ramesh Powar 6-0-35-1.

West Zone (2nd innings):
A Christian run out 5
D Jadhav lbw Paul 11
W Jaffer c Dasgupta b Paul 16
J Martin not out 52
R Powar c Das b Nadee 38
N Patel c Dasgupta b Lahiri 4
P Patel not out 39
Extras: (lb-8, w-1, nb-1) 10
Total: (for 5 wickets in 58.3 overs) 175

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-28, 3-35, 4-103, 5-109

Bowling: Shib Shankar Paul 14.3-3-38-2, Ranadeb Bose 7-2-21-0, Sourav Ganguly 11-3-28-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 14-1-51-1, Sourasish Lahiri 12-2-29-1.