After a scintillating bowling effort, South Zone are reduced to 181 for 7 in the second innings. At the end of the third day’s play, they are leading by 248 runs in the 2023 Duleep Trophy Final.
Earlier, fast-bowler Vidwath Kaverappa picked 7/53 as West Zone skittled out for 146, handing the former a lead of 67 runs.
Kaverappa's seven-for is the second-best bowling figure for South Zone in Duleep Trophy. Venkatesh Prasad leads the chart for his 7 for 38 versus North Zone in 1993.
Starting their second innings, South were reduced to 8 for 2 with both R Samarth and Tilak Varma back in the dugout.
Chintan Gaja bowled Samarth with a ball that kept low while Varma failed to close the gap between bat and pad, allowing an Arzan Nagwaswalla snorter to go through it, disturbing the timbers.
Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari stitched a 64-run partnership to pour water over North’s chances of coming back into the game.
The partnership was a resilient one as there were several misses, and edges that fell short but the duo decided to put their heads down and bat for more than 14 overs, revitalising their team’s batting effort.
Nagwaswalla ended the partnership after Agarwal tried to pull him on a ball that was short of a length. Suryakumar Yadav pouched it safely to send him back to the pavilion for 35 runs.
Mayank was not satisfied with the dismissal as the pacer had already bowled two bouncers in an over prior to his dismissal. He reckoned the delivery was a no-ball and fumed in anger. The match referee had to intervene to calm the situation.
South were tattering at 95 for 4 when Vihari edged a delivery bowled by Atit Sheth, handing over a catch to gloveman Harvik Desai.
Ricky Bhui and Sachin Baby gave further impetus to the slander lead pushing it over 200, adding 59 runs off 97 balls.
Both Sachin and Bhui fell when the team’s score was 154. Bad light eventually stopped play with South Zone sitting in an advantageous position with a lead of 248.
