BENGALURU: The South Zone pacers, especially Vidwath Kaverappa (4/44), were brilliantly bellicose while reducing West Zone to 129 for seven and helped their team regain some of the lost ground on the second day of the Duleep Trophy final here on Thursday.
West, which had bundled South out for 213 in its first innings earlier in the day, trails by 84 runs with three wickets remaining. West lost its way after Prithvi Shaw (65 off 101 balls, 9 fours) and Harvik Desai (21) put on 70 runs for the second-wicket partnership.
Shaw’s batting was a sight as the 23-year-old produced many sparkling shots and blunted the South attack. The 65-minute rain break in the day’s second session gave the South team a chance to revisit its strategies and they came out with better plans.
After Vyshak Vijaykumar (2/29) removed Shaw, who was caught at the third-man region, Vidwath ran through the West middle-order as veteran Cheteshwar Pujara (9), Suryakumar Yadav (8) and Sarfaraz Khan (0) fell cheaply.
While Suryakumar could not negate a delivery that reared from just short of a good length, Sarfaraz was caught plumb in front of the stumps. Pujara then flicked one to R Samarth, with West’s ship sinking at that stage.
Final: South Zone 213 in 78.4 overs (H Vihari 63, Tilak 40, S Mulani 3/29) vs West Zone 129/7 in 45 overs (P Shaw 65, Vidwath 4/44)