BENGALURU, July 8: South Zone sailed into the finals of the Duleep Trophy, though in choppy waters at the end, by defeating North Zone by two wickets on final day of Duleep Trophy semifinals at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday. Chasing 215 against North, South were reduced to 213 for 8 from 191 for 4. At the end, however, Sai Kishore got the last two runs by hoicking rival captain Jayant Yadav straight for a six. The victory did not come easily to the South as the chase was interrupted by two lengthy spells of rain. Their batsmen capitalised on the foundation laid by opener Mayank Agarwal and captain Hanuma Vihari as they played their shots despite wickets falling at the other end. Vihari dominated the opening standoff 44 with Sai Sudarshan as both the overnight batsmen began to chase down the remaining 194 runs with all wickets in hand. But Vaibhav Arora scalped two quick wickets of Sudarshan and Ravikumar Samarth, reducing South Zone to 59/2. Soon Vihari and Agarwal launched a counter-attack as dark clouds started to loom large over the stadium. The duo stitched 59 runs partnership for third wicket in just 47 balls, walloping North bowlers without any difficulty. Jayant, however, gave a glimmer of hope as he got rid of Agarwal for 54. Vihari, at the other end though, kept the chase ticking, before he lost his wicket to Harshit Rana for 43, leaving South to get 74 runs deficit with six wickets in hand. Ricky Bhui and Tilak Varma added 50 off just 33 balls, before the former fell for 34, which opened the floodgates, with Baltej Singh and Rana picking up two wickets each inside four overs. The South managed to scrape through, and will face West Zone in the final beginning July 12. On Day 1, as many as 14 wickets fell.
North were restricted to 198 in their first innings, thanks to a five-wicket haul by pacer Vidwath Kaverappa. However, South Zone also lost four wickets after putting on 63 runs at the close of play. Prabhsimran Singh top-scored for North Zone with 49, while Ankit Kumar and Harshit Rana contributed 33 and 31 runs, respectively. Kaverappa took the key wickets of Dhruv Shorey (11), Ankit Kalsi (2), and skipper Jayant (2), before scalping two tail-end batsmen. For the North, Baltej dismissed Sudharsan (9) and Samarth (1), while Rana removed Vihari (0) and Bhui (0) off consecutive deliveries. On Day 2, North Zone rode back with vengeance as South Zone were bundled out three runs short of North’s first innings score. Agarwal and Varma exceled and scored crucial 76 and 46, whereas other South batsmen did not contribute much. Arora and Jayant were wreckers-in-chief for North as they shared six wickets between them. Baltej and Harshit bagged two wickets each. At the close of play, North were 51/2, leading South by 54 runs with 8 wickets in hands. On Day 3, pacer Vyshak Vijaykumar put South Zone on a winning track as he plotted a middle-order collapse with a five-wicket haul, leaving South with a target of 215 runs. North were sitting pretty at 146 for three, but Vyshak’s 5/76 reduced them to 171/8 before they were skittled for 211 in their second innings. Before the rains came down in the final session, South Zone openers Sudharsan and Agarwal knocked off 21 off the target. In the other semifinal played at KSCA Ovals Stadium at Alur, defending champions West Zone stormed into the finals based on first-innings lead over Central Zone after persistent rain ended in a tame draw.
West folded their innings after adding five runs to their overnight score of 292 for 9. Saransh Jain dismissed Yuvrajsinh Dodiya in the second over of the morning. Central were never a huge 390 runs chase. They lost their openers Himanshu Mantri and Vivek Singh for 4 and 9, respectively. Dhruv Jurel (25) and Amandeep Khare (27 not out) shone, before the former was stumped by Het Patel off Dharmendrasinh Jadeja. Rinku Singh, who has a reputation of scoring runs quickly, took the Central’s score past 100 at lunch by clobbering three boundaries and as many sixes. But Yuvrahsinh Dodiya sent him back for 40 off 30 balls on the first ball after lunch. Around 2.20 pm, after a spell of heavy showers in the second session, prompted both captains to call off the match. Scores
South Zone 195 (Agarwal 76, Jayant 3-38, Arora 3-57) and 219 for 8 (Agarwal 54, Vihari 43, Harshit 3-84) beat North Zone 198 (Prabhsimran 49, Kaverappa 5-28) and 211 (Prabhsimran 63, Vyshak 5-76, Kishore 3-28) by two wickets West Zone 220 (Sheth 74, Mavi 4-43) and 297 (Pujara 133, Suryakumar 52, Jain 4-56, Saurabh 4-84) drew with Central Zone 128 (Rinku 48, Nagwaswalla 5-74) and 128 for 4 (Rinku 40, Dodiya 1-16). (UNI)
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