BENGALURU: The North Zone bowlers produced a gritty performance to bowl South Zone out for 195 and give their team a slender first-innings advantage on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final match here on Thursday.
At close of play, North was 51 for two in its second innings for an overall lead of 54 runs. When it was its turn, South had a chance to construct a bigger total but bulked under the constant pressure that was applied.
Starting the day at 63 for four while responding to North’s first-innings score of 198, South was thankful to opener Mayank Agarwal (76 off 115 balls, 10 fours) and Tilak Varma (46 off 101 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) as they added 110 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership. But after both were dismissed, the North bowlers titled the match in their team’s favour.
In the other semi-final here, Cheteshwar Pujara (50 batting off 103 balls, 5 fours) and Suryakumar Yadav (52 off 58 balls, 8 fours, 1 six) hit contrasting half-centuries after West Zone left-arm medium pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla’s five-wicket haul floored Central Zone.
At stumps, West reached 149 for three in its second essay, extending its overall lead to 241. At the start of the day, Central skipper Shivam Mavi (6/44) wrapped up the West first innings for 220, for the addition of just four runs to the overnight score. But the joy turned out to be short-lived as Nagwaswalla took 5/74 to decimate Central Zone for 128.