R. Malolan twirled his off-spinners to scalp five wickets as South Zone took the decisive first-innings lead against West Zone on the final day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Sunday. In three days’ time, they will take on Central Zone in the semi-final at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
R. Malolan twirled his off-spinners to scalp five wickets as South Zone took the decisive first-innings lead against West Zone on the final day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Sunday. In three days’ time, they will take on Central Zone in the semi-final at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Overnight batsman Ankit Bawne remained unconquered on 115 with seven fours and a six as West were bowled out for 287 in 133 overs. It took 146 minutes into Day Four for South to end the seventh-wicket partnership between Bawne and left-handed Rakesh Dhruv (53). The right-left batting combination handled the spinners with a method all of their own as they put on 93 runs in 244 balls. Bawne exhibited exemplary technique and usage of the crease in handling balls that jumped and darted back into him sharply after pitching in the rough outside the off-stump. The offie kept tossing the ball up to the bat with good drift and mixed it up with a few straighter ones. South skipper Vinay Kumar’s patience ran out as he started ringing in quick changes. Bawne reached his first hundred in the Duleep Trophy with a dab to point, his grit raising a glimmer of hope for West. However, a typical tail-ender’s slog from Dhruv off Aushik finally got South the breakthrough. Dhruv was caught at mid-on by Rohan Prem. After lunch it was Malolan’s show as he picked up the wickets of Murtuja Vahora (1) and Jaydev Unadkat (19) to complete a five-for. With a semi-final berth in the bag, South decided to bat out the remaining overs. In 22.5 overs South declared their second innings at 44 runs for the loss of opener K.L. Rahul (9) 10 minutes before the start of mandatory overs. The match was subsequently called off. B. Aparajith of South was adjudged the man of the match for his scintillating double hundred. Scorecard
South Zone (1st innings): 600 decl. West Zone (1st innings): W. Jaffer c Vinay b Malolan 11, A. Waghmode c Vinay b Abhinav 57, A. Bawne (not out) 115, M. Juneja b Abhinav 0, Yusuf c Prem b Aushik 1, H. Shah lbw b Malolan 15, R. Motwani lbw b Malolan 0, R. Dhruv c Prem b Aushik 53, M. Vahora b Malolan 1, J. Unadkat c Akshath b Malolan 19, A. Darekar st Gautam b Aparajith 3. Extras 12 (b3, lb2, nb1, w1, p5). Total (in 133 overs) 287. FoW: 1-32, 2-114, 3-114, 4-115, 5-155, 6-155, 7-248, 8-249, 9-279. Bowling: Vinay 7-4-10-0, Mithun 12-2-26-0, Aushik 40-19-52-2, Pandey 6-1-15-0, Malolan 39-9-101-5, Aparajith 17-1-53-1, Prem 7-2-9-0, Abhinav 4-0-8-2, Rahul 1-0-3-0. South Zone (2nd innings): K.L. Rahul b Dhruv 9, A. Reddy (not out) 25, B. Aparajith (not out) 5. Extras 5 (b5). Total (for 1 wkt in 22.5 overs) 44 decl. FoW: 1-26. Bowling: Dhruv 10-4-14-1, Yusuf 3-0-13-0, Darekar 8-5-9-0, Juneja 1-0-3-0, Unadkat 0.5-0-0-0. MoM: B. Aparajith.
