BENGALURU: South Zone underpropped the performance of its bowlers with plucky batting against West Zone in its second innings, reaching 181 for seven to take up the reins of the Duleep Trophy final on the third day at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday.
At stumps, South held a healthy lead of 248 runs with three wickets left in the bank. Earlier in the day, pacer Vidwath Kaverappa (7/53 off 19 overs) finished with a seven-wicket haul as South wasted little time in bowling West out for 146 to earn a 67-run first-innings lead.
Vidwath recorded his career-best first-class figures and delivered the second-best show by a South bowler in the Duleep Trophy. After Vidwath’s heroics, South did not get off to the best of starts as it lost R Samarth (5) and Tilak Varma (3) in quick succession.
Chintan Gaja (1/40) removed Samarth with a delivery that kept a tad low while Arzan Nagwaswalla (2/52) managed to sneak the ball between Tilak’s bat and pads to hit the stumps. After South stood at eight for two, Mayank Agarwal (35) and skipper Hanuma Vihari (42) dented West’s hopes by adding 64 runs for the third wicket.
But just as the partnership was blossoming, Mayank’s effort to pull Nagwaswalla’s short-pitched ball ended in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav. Mayank was not one bit happy about the decision as Nagwaswalla had already bowled two allotted bouncers per over.
Atit Sheth (2/38) then induced a faint outside edge from Vihari as South slipped to 95 for four, with its overall lead 162. Ricky Bhui (37) and Sachin Baby (28) produced a solid 59-run stand for the fifth wicket before being dismissed in the span of just two balls.