East Zone managed to confirm their spot in the Duleep Trophy final with a nervy four-wicket win over Central Zone in Bengaluru. Despite suffering a batting collapse yesterday, East Zone were always in control of the contest after reducing Central Zone to 43/3 by Stumps. With the contest turning into a second-innings shootout after both teams finished with identical first innings scores, it was vital for Central Zone to recover with the bat on the third day.
However, Abhijit K Sarkar and Mohammed Shami struck in consecutive overs to reduce them to 63/5. Aman Mokhade managed to battle it out in the middle for 41 and the likes of Harsh Dubey and Arshad Khan made meaningful contributions lower down the order to drag Central Zone beyond 150. Mukesh Kumar, who had already struck twice the previous day, finished with a four-wicket haul whereas Shami finished with three.
Chasing 159, East Zone once again had their openers step up. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhimanyu Easwaran added 61 for the opening wicket with the former in particular batting in typical swashbuckling fashion. But once again, the moment there was a breakthrough with Sooryavanshi falling for 40, Easwaran followed suit with just four runs added to the total.
Given their collapse in the first innings, Central Zone sensed an opportunity for an encore. But Ishan Kishan alongside Kumar Kushagra ensured there were no hiccups for a while as they guided East Zone to 124/3 at one stage when Harsh Dubey struck twice in two balls to cause some panic in the batting camp again. Kishan however batted through at one end, remaining unbeaten on 39 before Shami hit the winning runs.
North Zone put up a much better batting performance in the second innings before a flurry of late wickets handed the advantage back to South Zone by Stumps on Day 3. Resuming with a lead of 90 runs, South Zone added 27 more runs on the third day, losing the last remaining wicket. Tilak Varma finished unbeaten on 116.
North Zone then made a stuttering start as Qamran Iqbal, the hero with the bat in the first innings, fell early this time. But Sanat Sangwan and Ayush Doseja led a brilliant recovery with a century stand that also wiped out the deficit. Even after the partnership was broken, North Zone were still in a pretty good position at 190/3 at one stage with Sangwan well set at one end.
However, Shreyas Gopal trapped Abdul Samad leg-before-wicket after the batter had smashed a couple of sixes early in his innings. And that wicket triggered a late collapse that changed the equation completely again. MD Nidheesh bagged the big wicket of Sangwan before removing the skipper Kanhaiya Wadhawan. Gopal then added to his tally before Anshul Kamboj and Nishant Sindhu were involved in an unbeaten stand of 47 runs before stumps that dragged the lead to 139 with three wickets still in hand.
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