Top bowling spells by Vidwath Kaverappa, Sai Kishore and classy knocks from skipper Hanuma Vihari proved to be the difference as South Zone clinched the Duleep Trophy title by defeating West Zone in the final by 75 runs on Sunday. This is South Zone’s first title win since the 2010/11 season. They shared the title with North Zone in the 2013/14 season. In the chase of 298 runs, West Zone lost two quick wickets, including Prithvi Shaw for just seven. WZ was at 19/2.
Then, Cheteshwar Pujara and Priyank Panchal rebuild the innings with a half-century partnership. Vasuki Koushik broke the partnership at 57 runs, dismissing Pujara for 15. WZ was at 75/3. Suryakumar Yadav was next to fall for just four and WZ was struggling at 79/4.
Another valuable partnership followed between Sarfaraz Khan and Priyank, with the duo bringing the target below to nearly 120 runs. That is when Sai Kishore started weaving his spin web, dismissing Sarfaraz for 48 in 76 balls. WZ was at 177/5. Panchal, who had brought up his half-century, continued to fight a largely lone battle, but fell for a valiant 95 in 211 balls, consisting of 11 fours to Kaverappa. WZ was 189/6. From that point, the contest became largely one-sided and Kishore cleared the tailenders, bundling out WZ for 222, winning the game by 75 runs. Kishore (4/57) and Koushik 4/36) were the picks of the bowlers for South Zone. Kevarappa and Vijakumar Vyshak got one wicket each. Earlier, South Zone was bundled out for 230 runs in their second innings. They secured a 297-run lead over West Zone, who trailed South by 67 runs at the end of their first innings. In South’s second innings, Hanuma Vihari (42 in 89 balls), Washington Sundar (37 in 75 balls), Washington Sundar (35 in 68 balls) and Ricky Bhui (37 in 69 balls) were among the major contributors with the bat. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja took a five-wicket haul, ending with figures of 5/40 for South. Atit Sheth and Arzan Nagwaswalla also got two wickets. South Zone gained a sizeable 67-run first-innings lead after skittling out West Zone for just 146 in their first innings. Prithvi Shaw (65 in 101) fought a largely lone battle for West Zone as stars like Pujara (9), Suryakumar (8), Sarfaraz (0) and skipper Priyank (11) were left helpless by medium-pace of Kaverappa, who clinched the figures of 7/53.
Being put to bat first by West, South bundled out for 213 runs in their first innings. Skipper Vihari (63 in 130 balls), Tilak Varma (40 in 87 balls) and Mayank (28 in 47 balls) offered key contributions at the top. Shams Mulani (3/29) was the pick of the bowlers for West Zone. Nagwaswalla, Jadeja, Chintan Gaja also took two wickets each. Kaverappa earned the ‘Player of the Match’ award for taking eight wickets in the match. He also took home the ‘Player of the Series’ award for taking 15 wickets in the tournament.
