Yashasvi Jaiswal’s sparkling fifty remained a mere personal landmark as Central Zone advanced to the Duleep Trophy final by virtue of their first innings lead in the drawn match against West Zone in Bengaluru on Sunday. In the other last-four clash, N Jagadeesan struck an unbeaten 52 to extend South Zone’s dominance as they advanced to the final after taking a 175-run first-innings lead against North Zone here on Sunday. South Zone reached 95 for one when the game was called off with Jagadeesan, who had struck a brilliant 197 in the first innings, reaching 52 not out off 69 balls with six fours to carry on with his red-hot form.
Central Zone will now face South Zone in the final which is scheduled from September 11.
Jaiswal (64) peppered the boundary lines often in his 70-ball innings that helped West reach 216 for eight in their second innings, but the 162-run innings lead that they conceded earlier sealed their fate.
Central, overnight 556 for eight, were bowled out for 600 but not before Saransh Jain (63 not out) compiled a well-deserved fifty.
West skipper Shadul Thakur (6) was dismissed at the stroke of tea, with Tanush Kotian (40) batting at the other end, and the both teams agreed to shake hands at that point, signalling a draw.
While not seeing his side in the title clash might come as a disappointment for Jaiswal, he would be happy to spend some good time in the middle for the first time after the Test series against England.
He was his usual aggressive self while making a fifty at a strike-rate of 92, but eventually the aggression proved his undoing as a rather ugly swipe off left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (3/96) ended his stay.
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However, Shreyas Iyer, who came to bat at No. 7, disappointed for the second time in the match, getting out for 12.
Iyer, who will captain India A against Australia A in two red-ball games later this month, nicked off-spinner Saransh Jain (5/84) to stumper Upendra Yadav.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made a big hundred in the first innings, started positively, slamming two sixes but soon
perished to Dubey for 16.
Once their three main batters did not kick on and slipped to 168 for six, the duty to save the day for the West Zone side fell on late order batters such as Kotian, Tushar Deshpande and Thakur.
They were tested to the hilt by Dubey and Jain before Deshpande fell to the latter, giving a simple catch to Rajat Patidar at mid-wicket.
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But Central did not press for the outright win despite West’s lead being a minuscule 54 with just two wickets left.
Thakur was understandably disappointed particularly with the batting in the first innings where West were bowled out for 438.
“In the first innings of Day 1, there were a few shots that we could have avoided as a batting unit and that’s where we lost the momentum. And then of course Ruturaj batted brilliantly to bring us back in the game.
“The partnership between me and Tanush was good but my run out was probably one of the turning points as well. If we had scored 500 from there, then this game would have definitely turned in our favour. Of course, some catches from our side were put down and a few very close calls not coming our way too,” said Thakur after the match.
South Zone advance to final
North Zone, under pressure after their opponents piled up 536 in the first innings, had resumed the play on Sunday at 278 for five with 258 runs in arrears.
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Shubham Khajuria, who struck a gritty century on the third day of the contest to reach 128, failed to add to his overnight score as he was cleaned up by Vasuki Koushik for the first wicket on the final day’s second over.
Khajuria’s innings ended on 128 off 252 balls with 20 fours and a six.
Sahil Lotra (19) and Mayank Dagar (31) tried to delay the inevitable but their partnership of 47 runs for the seventh wicket did not trouble the South Zone much. The South Zone bowlers kept striking at regular intervals to bowl North Zone out for 361 from 100.1 overs, taking a huge lead in the first innings.
Gurjapneet Singh was the pick among the bowlers for South Zone as he returned figures of 4/96, while MD Nidheesh claimed 3/82 off his 19 overs. Koushik and Tanay Thyagarajan took one wicket apiece.
With a massive lead and only one result possible, South Zone batters took a measured approach to reach 95 for one in the 24.4 overs that they faced before the draw was enforced.
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South Zone captain Mohammed Azharuddeen said after the game that his team’s first-innings score of 536 put them in a commanding position.
“Yes, to be honest they were batting really well, but we know that we got that cushion because of that huge runs and we were just waiting for the one mistake and we got it. Even before that we got one chance, we dropped it, but eventually we got the wicket. So, we were in the game always because we got the cushion of 536 runs,” Azharuddeen told the media.
The North, South, West, and Central Zone players who have been selected for India A’s two red-ball matches against Australia A will assemble at Lucknow on September 12. Therefore South and Central zones, who are to meet in the Duleep Trophy final from September 11, will miss the services of the likes of N Jagadeesan, Devdutt Padikkal, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur and Khaleel Ahmed in the title clash here.
Brief scores: South Zone 536 & 95/1 in 24.4 overs (N Jagadeesan 52 not out; Auqib Nabi 1/23) drew with North Zone 361 in 100.1 overs (Shubham Khajuria 128, Ayush Badoni 40, Nishant Sidhu 82; MD Nidheesh 3/82, Gurjapneet Singh 4/96). West Zone 438 & 216/8 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 64*, Tanush Kotian 40*, Saransh Jain 5/84) drew Central Zone 600 (Saransh Jain 63*)
(With PTI inputs)
