Duleep Trophy: South battles elements and North gamesmanship to emerge victor in the semifinal

Fighting finish: Sai Kishore, fired up after a fiery verbal exchange with pacer Harshit, emerged the hero for South.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

South Zone braved the elements and North Zone gamesmanship to pull off a thrilling two-wicket win in their Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Saturday.

After a lengthy rain interruption, South Zone — on 183 for four — was left with 32 runs to get in the final session.

In normal circumstances, this would have been a breeze for South, but an astute North Zone captain Jayant Yadav made it tough by slowing the over rate to a crawl.

Jayant and North was hopeful that rain or bad light would arrive again to put an end to proceedings. With North sitting on a three-run first innings lead, the side would have progressed to the final in the event of a draw.

Jayant used every trick in the book — moving his fielders from one end of the ground to the other, asking the groundsmen to enter the field and throw sawdust on the landing spot, and chatting to the bowlers for long periods. The bowlers often stopped in the middle of their run-up, leading to heckles from the small but boisterous crowd.

The umpires also copped a earful from spectators for not instructing North to speed it up.

Jayant employed a clever 7-2 offside field to stifle the batters. This got the better of Ricky Bhui (34), Tilak Varma (25), Washington Sundar (2) and K.V. Sasikanth (9) — all of whom departed in the search of quick runs.

At 201 for seven, with 14 runs still needed and the light fading, South Zone felt the jitters. Sai Kishore (15 n.o., 11b, 2×6), fired up after a fiery verbal exchange with pacer Harshit Rana, emerged as the hero. The southpaw held firm in the face of intense pressure, taking South over the line with a mighty six over mid-wicket.

In the closing passage, North took a full 53 minutes to bowl 5.5 overs.

South skipper Hanuma Vihari stated that he understood why North resorted to time wasting tactics.

“I’ve come across many games in domestic cricket where teams delay the over rate in the final session. This is not wrong on their part. Some may say that this is not in the spirit of the game, but I would have done the same thing if I was the North captain,” a gracious Vihari said.

Earlier, Mayank Agarwal (54, 57b, 7×4) and Vihari (43, 42b, 8×4) stepped on the gas to give South momentum. South takes on West Zone in the final, which will commence at the same venue on Wednesday.

The scores: North — 1st innings: 198

South — 1st innings: 195

North — 2nd innings: 211

South — 2nd innings: Sai Sudharsan c Prabhsimran b Vaibhav 17, Mayank Agarwal lbw b Jayant 54, R. Samarth lbw b Vaibhav 5, Hanuma Vihari c Sindhu b Harshit 43, Ricky Bhui c Shorey b Baltej 34, Tilak Varma c Prabhsimran b Harshit 25, Washington Sundar c Nishant b Harshit 2, Sai Kishore (not out) 15, K.V. Sasikanth c Jayant b Baltej 9, V. Vyshak (not out) 0; Extras (lb-4, w-5, nb-6): 15; Total (for eight wickets, in 36.1 overs): 219.

Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-59, 3-118, 4-141, 5-191, 6-191, 7-201, 8-213.

North bowling: Harshit 13-0-84-3, Baltej 12-1-47-2, Vaibhav 6-0-46-2, Jayant 5.1-0-38-1.

PoM: Mayank Agarwal.