MATCH REPORT
Follow UsThe Duleep Trophy semi-final match between South Zone and North Zone went down to the wire, and it eventually took an inspired R Sai Kishore to launch North skipper Jayant Yadav for a six in the last over of the day to lead South to a thriller victory. North, who had the first innings lead, did everything they could to delay the proceedings and even took around 40 minutes to finish four overs, but South had reined supreme.
Winning Shot
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South Zone’s skipper Hanuma Vihari, when asked about North Zone slowing down the game, insisted that it is well within the laws, and also added that he would have done the same had the ball been on his side of the court. Funnily enough, during the first innings, it was Jayant's crafty bowling which got the better of Kishore's batting, with the Tamil Nadu man going for the big hit.
Chasing 215 runs, South understood that rain would not be in their favour; hence they decided to go gung-ho for a win. But the rain returned yet again before the Tea break, forcing the umpires to go for an early Tea. It further got delayed, but when it resumed, the duo of Ricky Bhui and Tilak Varma knew nothing other than slambang cricket would suffice.
They lost wickets in the process, but the pending 28 runs were easily chased down despite North doing everything to force a draw. Meanwhile, the game went on in Alur without much fuss before rain had the last laugh.
Apart from the first three hours of play on the first day, in which West Zone lost five wickets for 60 runs, there was barely any passage of play that was not dominated by West Zone in Alur. Even though rain interrupted the match multiple times, West Zone had the first innings lead, which was enough for them to qualify for the final, scheduled to be played from July 12-16 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Both teams decided to shake hands after 2 PM, with the wet outfield having too many puddles to be filled. Umpires inspected the ground a couple of times, but torrential rain arrived again, leaving the officials with no option but to call off the last play session. Central were 120/4 in 34 overs in their pursuit of chasing down 390 run target given by West Zone.
Despite having a substantial lead already, West Zone, already nine down from overnight, decided to come out to bat once again and added six more runs to their tally before Saransh Jain dismissed Yuvrajsinh Dodiya to bring an end to their campaign on 297.
