West throw game wide open
Hyderabad, Feb. 5: If South Zone took the honours on the first three days of the Duleep Trophy final against West Zone at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Day Four on Friday belonged to the West.
Chasing a monumental target of 536, West ended the day at 379/6, Chirag Pathak leading the way with a defiant 130 and crucial contributions coming from Yusuf Pathan (84 n.o.) and Wasim Jaffer (66).
Resuming the day at 50/0, openers Pahak and Harshad Khadiwale began with a bang, hitting a flurry of fours as the South Zone bowlers toiled hard, lacking the penetration necessary to make inroads into West’s strong batting line-up.
The opening stand yielded 117 in quick time before Khadiwale (45) was caught by Gautam off Anirudha. Pathak led a charmed life, dropped on 62 and 79 and his fortune rubbed on his skipper too.
Jaffer on 23 survived a caught-and-bowled appeal off C. Ganapathy, when the ball took the inside edge onto the pad and ballooned up in the air but South African umpire Johan Coete was unmoved.
The duo added 107 runs for the second wicket before Alfred Absolem got rid of Pathak. West soon slipped to 294/5 when Bhavik Thaker (0), Jaffer and Ravindra Jadeja (1) fell in quick succession.
But the Pathans — Yusuf and Irfan — got into the rescue act, adding a quickfire 84 in 13.1 overs that brought the match alive. But there was one last twist towards the fag end of the day when South saw off Irfan (42), when the left-hander played on off Absolem.
Yusuf who scored a blistering 108 in the first innings, was 16 short of his second century in the match. His presence will be the key if West dreams of all going all the way. Yusuf’s entertaining knock has so far produced five splendid sixes and seven boundaries.
With a day to go in this title clash, 157 runs separate the two teams. If the West do scale the summit on Saturday, it will be the highest successful run chases in any form of first-class cricket.
Currently, the highest successful run chased in fourth innings in a first-class game in India is 503/4 scored by South Zone against England A at Gurgaon in 2003-04.
However, the highest successful chase stands at 513/9 by Central Province against Southern Province at Kandy, Sri Lanka in the very same year.
Scores: South Zone 400 and 386/9 decl. vs West Zone 251 and 379/6 (Chirag Pathak 130, Yusuf Pathan batting 84., Wasim Jaffer 66, Irfan Pathan 42; Alfred Absolem 2/53)
Prasad Ramasubramanian
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