South Zone off-spinner R. Malolan extracted bounce and turn on a ‘lifeless’ Chepauk pitch to demolish West Zone’s top-order on day three of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Saturday.
South Zone off-spinner R. Malolan extracted bounce and turn on a ‘lifeless’ Chepauk pitch to demolish West Zone’s top-order on day three of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Saturday. At stumps, West were struggling at 156/6 in 76 overs after South had declared their first innings at 600/9 with Malolan proving his worth with the bat as well by scoring an unbeaten 58. West need a monumental effort to overhaul South’s target. Ankit Bawne on 62 (175b, 6x4s) is waging a lone battle. The ultra defensive approach of West mainstay Wasim Jaffer meant South captain Vinay Kumar could have as many as three fielders near the bat to the spinners, Malolan and Aushik Srinivas and it was the former right after lunch, who proved to be the game changer. Misreading a delivery that drifted away to an off-spinner, Jaffer only got a thick edge which carried to Vinay at slip. The West skipper had scored 11 off 57 balls. Left-handed opener Aditya Waghmode found a perfect ally in Bawne for the second wicket. They braved Malolan’s testing spell, who completed 15 overs on the go after lunch (15-3-33-1), to add 82 runs in 36.3 overs. Vinay brought in part-time spinner Abhinav Mukund and the decision proved to be a masterstroke. Abhinav got rid of Waghmode (57, 7x4s) who was caught brilliantly at mid-off by Vinay and then sent back Manpreet Juneja with a googly to leave West at 114/3. Yusuf Pathan’s recklessness brought about his downfall when play resumed after tea. In an attempt to muscle one over long-on off left-arm spinner Aushik in just his fifth ball, he found the man at point. Scorecard: South Zone (1st innings): A. Reddy: lbw b Unadkat 18, A. Mukund b Vahora 4, K.L. Rahul lbw bYusuf 6, B. Aparajith (run out) 212, M. Pandey lbw b Dhruv 213, C.M. Gautam lbw b Darekar 0, Rohan Prem c Dhruv b Vahora 35, R. Malolan (not out) 58, R. Vinay Kumar lbw b Dhruv 20, A. Mithun lbw b Dhruv 4, R. Aushik 6 (not out). Extras: 24 (p5, b11, lb3, n2, w3). Total (for 9 wkts; in 171.1 overs) 600 decl. FoW: 1-20, 2-22, 3-52, 4-242, 5-333, 6-473, 7-521, 8-556, 9-564. Bowling: Unadkat 24-2-91-1, Vahora 21.1-6-41-2, Yusuf 25-3-69-1, Dhruv 48-3-183-3, Darekar 48-7-172-1, Bawne 2-0-13-0, Waghmode 3-0-12-0. West Zone (1st innings): W. Jaffer c Vinay b Malolan 11, A. Waghmode c Vinay b Abhinav 57, A. Bawne (batting) 62, 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 (batting) 0. Extras 10 (b2, lb2, nb1, p5). Total (for 6 wkts; in 76 overs) 156. FoW: 1-32, 2-114, 3-114, 4-115, 5-155, 6-155. Bowling: Vinay 5-3-6-0, Mithun 9-2-22-0, Aushik 22-8-27-1, Pandey 2-1-3-0, Malolan 22-4-50-3, Aparajith 5-0-22-0, Prem 7-2-9-0, Abhinav 3-0-5-2, Rahul 1-0-3-0.
