Indore, Jan. 29: Subramaniam Badrinath celebrated his India call-up with a fluent 82, while Manish Pandey and R. Ashwin also struck half-centuries as South Zone thumped Central Zone by five wickets to sail into the final of the Duleep Trophy here on Friday.
Chasing 291 runs for victory, South lost both their overnight batsmen — Arun Karthik (33) and Abhinav Mukund (19) — early to slump to 72/3 which put the match on razor’s edge.
Badrinath, named in the Indian squad for the first Test against South Africa next month, led from the front while Pandey (59) and Ashwin (59 not out), who shone both with the ball and bat in the match, chipped in with sparkling fifties as South Zone coasted to 293/5 in 70.2 overs.
They will take on West Zone in the final, which begins on February 2 in Hyderabad. Skipper Badrinath top-scored for South with a 116-ball knock that contained 13 fours and a six.
Manish Pandey, who struck 52 in the first innings, reached his half-century with the help of eight fours and a six. However, it was Ashwin who was the undisputed star of the match, hitting back-to-back half-centuries and taking six crucial wickets in Central Zone’s second innings that tilted the balance in South’s favour.
In Rajkot, West Zone breezed into the final on the basis of their huge 475-run first innings lead after their semifinal against North Zone ended in a tame draw.
Resuming at their overnight score of 56/1, West Zone declared their second innings at 345/7, a few overs before the start of the mandatory overs. The only highlight of the day was centuries by Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma.
The duo, who got together after the quick dismissal of Parthiv Patel (31) and skipper Wasim Jaffer (6) this morning, added 172 runs for the fourth wicket.
Pujara, promoted to open the innings, made 110 runs from 171 balls with the help of 16 fours. Sharma was more aggressive of the two, scoring 116 runs off 129 balls. His knock was studded with five sixes and 11 fours.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, too, chipped in with a useful knock of 56. For North Zone, Vikas Mishra was the pick off the bowlers with figures of 4/96, while Parvindar Awana, Rajat Bhatia and Ravi Inder Singh shared a wicket each.
After amassing a mammoth 769 runs in the first innings, West Zone bundled out the visitors for 294. However, they chose not to enforce the follow-on and opted for batting practice instead. — PTI
