...But South fail to seize initiative as top batters flop
BENGALURU: Overcast skies resulting in bad light disrupting play, pacers utilising the conditions well and some rash shots from batters summed up the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal between South and North Zones.
At the M Chinnaswamy stadium, South skipper Hanuma Vihari called right at the toss and his bowlers lived up to their reputation of being a formidable force. Led by Karnataka's young pacer Vidwath Kaverappa (5/28), who bagged his third first-class five-wicket haul, South bowled out North for 198 in 58.3 overs in the final session. But with the conditions remaining conducive for bowlers, North bounced back as the pace duo of Baltej Singh (2/21) and Harshit Rana (2/19) did some serious damage with only a defiant Mayank Agarwal remaining unbeaten on 37. At close, South were precariously placed at 63/4 with an innings deficit of 135 to cover.
South's success with the ball was mostly due to a disciplined Vidwath, who maintained a top of off-stump line to probe the batters. The 24-year-old struck twice in quick succession to rattle the opposition. Both Dhruv Shorey and Ankit Kalsa attempted drives only to be pouched by Ricky Bhui, who had a good day behind the wickets.
Vihari introduced spin early with Sai Kishore coming in the eighth over. The left-armer accounted for Prashant Chopra, who looked clueless before being adjudged leg-before. A 79-run stand for the fourth wicket between Ankit Kumar (29) and Prabhsimran Singh (49) brought about some relief in the North camp. Although Sasikanth (2/52) lacked pace and discipline, he broke the stand with Prabhsimran pulling a short ball to Sai Sudarshan at covers.
Washington Sundar, making a return from injury, had an ordinary outing with Harshit Rana (31) being his lone wicket on the day. Sundar's utility as an all-rounder will be tested on Thursday, when he comes out to bat.
South dug themselves into a hole when the highly rated Sai Sudarshan (9) offered Jayant Yadav a catch at mid-on off Baltej in the seventh over. R Samarth (9) needlessly played a Baltej delivery away and was caught by Chopra. Skipper Vihari compounded his team's woes when he played on a short ball from Rana to lose his stumps. Ricky Bhui followed his skipper off the next delivery with Thilak Verma then joining Agarwal at the crease.
Brief scores: North Zone: 198 all out in 58.3 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 49, Ankit Kumar 33, Nishant Sindhu 27, Harshit Rana 31; Vidwath Kaverappa 5-28, KV Sasikanth 2-52) vs South Zone: 63/4 in 17 overs (Mayank Agarwal (batting) 37; Baltej Singh 2-21, Harshit Rana 2-19)
Atith Sheth spares West the blushes
An assembly line of Indian Test batting hopefuls was on show for West Zone on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone. But most of them failed to deliver.
At the Alur cricket ground, where West Zone opted to bat against Central Zone, their four key batters - Prithvi Shaw (26), Cheteshwar Pujara (28), Suryakumar Yadav (7) and Sarfaraz Khan (0) contributed a mere 61 runs and it took Atith Sheth's fighting half-century (74) to save the defending champions from a below-par score. When stumps were drawn, West Zone were 216 for 8 in 90 overs.
