Puducherry: Skipper Mayank Agarwal’s 98 provided the foundation for South Zone’s nervy 12-run win over West Zone in a Deodhar Trophy match here on Wednesday.

The win took South Zone to the top of the table.

On a day when bowlers generally called the shots, Agarwal made 98 (115 balls, 9x4s) to guide South Zone to 206. South Zone bowlers then rose to the occasion, restricting West to 194 to give their team valuable four points.

South Zone now have eight points from two matches. South Zone owe that position of comfort to captain Agarwal, who played a fine innings.

Agarwal preferred the off-side to amass the bulk of his runs as 55 runs were scored through the area.

Out of his nine fours, five came through third man, behind the point and the cover regions as he singlehandedly carried South past the 200-run mark.

Along with veteran batter KB Arun Karthick (23), Mayank milked 50 runs for the fifth wicket in a little over nine overs.

A century would have been the perfect icing on the cake but that wasn’t to be. The Karnataka opener fell to Saurashtra left-arm spinner Parth Bhut.

Bhut was the most successful bowler for West Zone as he grabbed three wickets conceding just 25 runs from his 10 overs.

Once they limited South to 206, West Zone might have hoped to register a win without much fuss. But those hopes were unfounded.

South Zone pace bowlers — Vidwath Kaverappa and Vasuki Koushik — inflicted early blows and the run out of Ankit Bawane and captain Priyank Panchal too did not help West’s cause.

However, West gave a hint of fightback through their middle-order consisting of Sarfaraz Khan (42), Shivam Dube (29) and Atit Sheth (40). Dube and Sheth added 65 runs for the sixth wicket to take West to 163 for five.

But South Zone spinners blunted their attempt with timely strikes. R Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar picked up five wickets between them as West fell short of the target.