Bengaluru: South Zone held their nerve to beat North Zone by two wickets in a thrilling semifinal on a rain-affected last day to reach the final of the Duleep Trophy 2023 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Saturday.
In the final, South will now take on defending champions West Zone in a repeat of the 2022 title clash.
Chasing a target of 215 for victory, South needed another 194 when play started on Day 4. Mayank Agarwal (54 off 57) set the tone with his second half-century of this low-scoring game and dominated his opening stand of 44 with Sai Sudharsan.
Vaibhav Arora then removed Sudharsan and R. Samarth in quick succession to leave South 59/2. That brought their captain Hanuma Vihari to the crease, and with dark clouds overhead and rain in the air, he got into counter-attack mode alongside Agarwal.
Both Vihari and Agarwal added 59 off 47 balls while driving and punching boundaries at will, which forced North into defensive fields. But, captain Jayant Yadav got rid of Agarwal for 54 to give North Zone a glimmer of hope. Vihari kept motoring at the other end before he was dismissed for 43 by Harshit Rana.
When South lost skipper Vihari, they needed 74 runs with six wickets standing. Ricky Bhui and Tilak Varma then stitched an aggressive partnership for the fifth wicket. They scored 50 off just 33 deliveries but just when it seemed the pair would see the chase home, the heavens opened up for the 17th interruption of this match with South needing another 32 runs for victory.
When play resumed eventually at 3.50 PM under leaden skies, skipper Jayant showed shrewd gamesmanship and tried to apply the delay tactics. He asked his bowlers to go for wide yorkers with five fielders on the off-side, moving fielders from one end of the field to the opposite of successive deliveries, having substitutes run onto the field and taking, on one occasion, as many as 9 minutes and 43 seconds to complete an over.
Though South had five wickets in hand, they faced some anxious moments as they were aware that North would make the cut by virtue of their three-run first-innings lead if the game was not completed.
The pressure got to South and both Bhui and Varma got out in quick succession while going for big shots. R. Sai Kishore hit a six off Baltej Singh to swing the match towards his side but Harshit Rana hit back from the other end to dismiss Washington Sundar.
The No.9 K.V. Sasikant then hit a six off Rana before falling to Baltej with two to win. It eventually came down to Sai Kishore, who kept his calm and deposited the opposition captain Jayant Yadav for a straight six to steer South to a two-wicket win and secured a place in the Duleep Trophy final.
Brief scores:
North Zone 198 (Prabhsimran Singh 49; Vidwath Kaverappa 5-28) & 211 (Prabhsimran Singh 63, Vijaykumar Vyshak 5-76) lost to South Zone 195 (Mayank Agarwal 76; Vaibhav Arora 3-57) & 219/8 (Mayank Agarwal 54, Hanuma Vihari 43; Harshit Rana 3-84) by two wickets.
(IANS)
