South Zone remains favourite to enter Duleep final
Khajuria found solid support in Haryana’s spin bowling all-rounder Nishant Sindhu (82), and together they stitched the day’s most important partnership of 171 runs for the fourth wicket.
South Zone's Gurjapneet Singh celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of North Zone's Nishant Sindhu. (PTI)
BENGALURU: Jammu and Kashmir’s Shubham Khajuria struck a fighting, unbeaten century to rescue North Zone, but South Zone remained favourite to progress to the Duleep Trophy final, here on Saturday.
In reply to South Zone’s imposing first-innings total of 536, North Zone ended day three of the semifinal at 278/5, still trailing by 258 runs.
The task of avoiding a first-innings deficit now rests heavily on Khajuria, who carried his bat for 128 not out from 245 balls (20x4, 1x6).
North’s innings began poorly with captain Ankit Kumar trapped leg-before by Gurjapneet Singh in the sixth over, and promising Yash Dhull (14) also fell cheaply, leaving the side wobbling at 38/2 in the first half an hour’s play.
Ayush Badoni (40) offered some resistance, putting on 63 with Khajuria, but was dismissed by MD Nidheesh as North was reduced to 101/3.
Khajuria then found solid support in Haryana’s spin bowling all-rounder Nishant Sindhu (82), and together they stitched the day’s most important partnership of 171 runs for the fourth wicket.
The pair dominated the second session, denying South a breakthrough as Khajuria raised his half-century off 107 balls and Sindhu played fluently at the other end.
Rain briefly interrupted play with Khajuria on 97 and Sindhu on 71 but on resumption, the Jammu & Kashmir opener reached his eighth first-class hundred off 204 balls.
Sindhu, who had earlier taken five wickets with his left-arm spin in South’s innings, was eventually dismissed for 82 (148 balls) as Gurjapneet claimed his third wicket.
South struck again late in the day, running out wicketkeeper Kanhaiya Wadhawan for a duck.
Brief Scores: South Zone 1st Innings: 536. North Zone 1st Innings: 278/5 in 79 overs (Shubham Khajuria 128 batting, Nishant Sindhu 82, Ayush Badoni 40; Gurjapneet Singh 3/67)
BCCI to elect new president on Sep 28
Mumbai: The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) will elect its new President and the next Indian Premier League (IPL) Chairman when it holds Annual General Meeting (AGM) here on September 28.
The post of the BCCI’s president fell vacant following the exit of former India cricketer Roger Binny earlier this month after he turned 70. He was appointed as the BCCI president in October 2022. BCCI constitution does not allow any official to host a post beyond 70.
IPL chairman Arun Dhumal is unlikely to continue after completing a cumulative term of six years.
While the election is supposed to take place for all key posts in the BCCI, it is effectively only for one position as the others are likely to continue in their roles.
Devajit Saikia was unanimously elected as the secretary in January this year after Jay Shah took over the role as Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
