South Zone produced a strong bowling performance led by Vidhwath Kaverappa’s four-wicket haul to bowl North Zone out for 195 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinals at the BCCI CoE on Sunday (August 30). Kaverappa took the crucial wicket of Qamran Iqbal and then ran through the lower-order while Tanay Thyagarajan and MD Nidheesh took a brace of wickets each to keep North in check on the opening day of the encounter.
North opted to bat, just as they had done in the quarters against West but apart from Iqbal’s 76 there were no substantial contributions. No.3 batter Ayush Doseja struck five boundaries in his knock of 23 before falling to Kavuri Saiteja. North then lost Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad in quick succession, slipping to 95 for 4 inside the opening session of the contest. Captain Kanhaiya Wadhawan scored 35 in the best stand of the innings (66) before Thyagarajan castled him. It left Iqbal to add heft to the total with the lower order. Unlike in the last game, there was no lower-order rescue act from Anshul Kamboj as Kaverappa arrived after an expensive first spell as North lost the final five wickets for just 21 runs.
North did hit back before close of play though with both Kamboj and Guroor Brar striking once each even as N. Jagadeesan raced away to an unbeaten 34.
Brief scores: North Zone 195 (Qamran Iqbal 76; Vidhwath Kaverappa 4-66, Tanay Thyagarajan 2-31) lead South Zone 40/2 (N. Jagadeesan 34*; Anshul Kamboj 1-9) by 155 runs
Rinku Singh struck eight boundaries in his 88-ball knock for 60, but East Zone, who won the toss and opted to bowl, produced a strong, collective effort to keep Central down to 266 in their first innings. East were pegged back early as Abhijit Sarkar (3 for 38) struck twice to dismiss Aman Mokhade and Kunal Chandela. When captain Rajat Patidar was out LBW to Mukesh Kumar (3 for 56) for 12, East were down to 66 for 3. That quickly became 125 for 5 as Aryan Juyal was trapped LBW by Mukhesh for 46.
It was left to Rinku to shepherd the lower middle-order and he did a fine job to that extent put on an important 55-run stand with Harsh Dubey. More resistance came from the final wicket pair of Yash Thakur and Arshad Khan, in which the latter faced nine balls for 1 run while Thakur found six boundaries in his 26-ball 30* to give the total an ounce of respectability.
Brief scores: Central Zone 266 (Rinku Singh 60, Aryan Juyal 46; Abhijit Sarkar 3-38, Mukesh Kumar 3-56) vs East Zone
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