Superb South script history
Hyderabad, Jan. 29: The chapters in the annals of Indian domestic cricket were rewritten on Saturday when South Zone walloped Central Zone by a whopping 552 runs to march into the final of the Duleep Trophy, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
The margin of win, though not surprising, showcased the disparities that existed in the attitude and application of the two mismatched sides. Chasing an impossible target of 770 for a win on the final day, Central folded up for 217 in the very first session of the day, thereby drawing curtains on a clash that has embarrassingly been in favour of South.
For the statistics savvy, the previous biggest margin of victory in Indian domestic cricket was in the year 1953-54, when Bengal beat Orissa by 540 runs in a Ranji Trophy match. The biggest margin of win in a Duleep Trophy clash was in 2007-08, when North scored a 433-run win over East.
Overnight batsmen Naman Ojha and Mohnish Mishra failed to delay the inevitable. Mohnish (38) was the first to depart, falling to an excellent catch by Sreenath Arvind off Pragyan Ojha. From 94/3, Central Zone slipped to 113/4 in no time. Devendra Bundela (29) and Ashok Menaria (63) stitched a 45-run stand before South Zone struck. Menaria continued from where he left in the first innings, and struck a few lusty blows.
His 47-ball knock came to an end when he was caught by C.M. Gautam off Vinay Kumar. Menaria’s show with the bat was the only positive aspect for this Central Zone outfit that looked pathetic on the field and poor with the willow.
Menaria’s dismissal was the final nail in Central Zone’s coffin as they were dismissed soon after. For South, everything went as per script with Vinay Kumar (4 for 36) and Arvind (2 for 28) leading the pack. Manish Pandey was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
Ojha was a shade expensive but bagged key wickets to end up with figures of 3 for 110. S. Badrinath’s boys will meet North in final at Visakhapatnam from February 2.
Scoreboard
South I innings: 443
Central Zone I innings: 178
South 2nd innings: 504/7
Central Zone II innings
Aakash Chopra c Uthappa b S. Aravind 8, Mohnish Mishra c S. Aravind b Pragyan Ojha 38, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Verma b S. Aravind 0, Naman Ojha b Pragyan Ojha 55, Devendra Bundela c Pragyan Ojha b Vinay 29, Ashok Menaria c Gautam b Vinay Kumar 63, R.P. Singh c & b Vinay 5, A. Wakhare c Mithun b Vinay 10, Pankaj Singh c Uthappa b Pragyan Ojha 7, Uemsh Yadav n.o. 0, Mohammad Kaif (absent hurt). Extras: (lb-1, w-1) 2
Total: (in 47.1 overs) 217
FoW: 1-19, 2-19, 3-94, 4-113, 5-155, 6-167, 7-210, 8-217, 9-217.
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 10.1-0-36-4, Abhimanyu Mithun 8-0-38-0, Sreenath Aravind 9-1-28-2, Pragyan Ojha 19-3-110-3, S. Badrinath 1-0-4-0.
Pic Caption:
South Zone’s Vinay Kumar (centre) celebrates the dismissal of Central Zone’s R.P. Singh on the final day of the Duleep Trophy semifinals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
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