Yash Rathod scored his highest first-class score of 194 as Central Zone constructed a massive first-innings lead of 362 against South Zone to gain complete control of the Duleep Trophy final here on Saturday.
Central started the third day at a strong 384 for five, with Rathod on 137, and they made 511 before getting bowled out an hour into the post-lunch session.
South reached 129 for two in their second innings, still trailing by 233 runs.
Ravichandran Smaran (37) and Ricky Bhui (26) were at the crease at stumps.
But the star of the day was undoubtedly Rathod, the highest run-getter in the previous Ranji Trophy season with 960 runs, who came into the final after squandering two golden chances against NorthEast Zone to notch hundreds.
In the quarterfinal, the left-hander made 87 and 78 before getting dismissed for two in the semifinal against the West Zone.
But, overnight 137, Rathod soon reached 150 off 223 balls and then went past his previous highest of 151, swelling the sixth-wicket partnership with Saransh Jain (69, overnight 47) to 176.
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The feature of Rathod’s batting was the way he negated South’s Ankit Sharma, taking 76 runs off 84 balls (7×4, 1×6) he faced from the left-arm spinner.
Rathod explained his game plan against the spinners — Ankit and leg-spin of Bhui.
“I think when I went to bat, the situation was good, because we were going to get the first-innings lead, but the plan was that the more I could react to the ball, the better it would be. But I was over trying at that time and Gurjapneet was consistently hitting the ball in the right areas, the ball was seaming and swinging.
“But after that phase, when the spinners came, the ball was coming to me and I was thinking how to dominate the bowlers. Rajat (Patidar) Bhai told me to control your nerves, and the more you control your nerves and try to react to the ball, the better it will be for you. So after lunch, I did that and it got better for me,” said Rathod after the third day’s play.
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Central went for lunch at 488 for six after losing Jain to Ankit (4/180) and Rathod too walked back soon after the resumption.
The 25-year-old missed a Gurjapneet Singh (4/124) delivery that came back a shade from the off-stump line, sneaking past the down-coming bat to rattle the stumps.
Once Rathod fell just six runs short of a maiden double century, Central folded very soon losing the remaining three wickets in the space of 11 runs.
South fight
South Zone, who were bundled out for 149 in the first innings, displayed better intent in the second dig.
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It started with openers Tanmay Agarwal (26) and Mohit Kale (38) adding 62 for the opening wicket before the latter was trapped plumb in front by off-spinner Jain.
However, the dismissal of Agarwal had a touch of misfortune to it. The Hyderabad left-hander shouldered his arms justifiably to a delivery on the off-stump from Kuldeep Sen that he felt will harmlessly move over the wickets.
But to his horror, the ball flew close enough to the off-stump to flick out the bail.
South, however, found two stubborn fighters in Smaran and Bhui, who added 53 runs off 14.5 overs for the ongoing third-wicket stand.
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Smaran had to resort to DRS to escape from a leg-before decision off Jain, but otherwise the Karnataka left-hander was rock solid and essayed some exquisite drives on the off-side.
Brief scores: South Zone 149 & 129 for 2 in 33 overs (Mohit Kale 38, Ravichandran Smaran 37 not out) vs Central Zone 511 all out in 145.1 overs (Danish Malewar 53, Rajat Patidar 101, Yash Rathod 194, Saransh Jain 69; Gurjapneet Singh 4/124, Ankit Sharma 4/180)
