East down West to enter Duleep semis
A disciplined all-round performance by East Zone helped them beat West Zone by five wickets to make it to the semifinal of the Duleep Trophy here on Monday.
East will meet North Zone in a last four match scheduled to be played in Delhi from February 4. After a batting collapse saw West lose five wickets for 21 runs, East were left to chase a target of 173, which they successfully did in 56.3 overs despite a few hiccups.
Having conceded the first innings lead, West who were leading by 102 runs at the end of third day needed to put up a decent total in order to enforce an outright victory. Kaustubh Pawar (37, 80 balls, 6x4) and Abhishek Nayar (58, 59 balls, 4x4, 3x6) started in right earnest with the latter starting to attack the East bowlers. Their sixth-wicket partnership produced 69 runs.
At 180 for five, the slide was started by Dinda who forced Kaustubh to edge one to Shreevats Goswami behind the stumps. Dinda, in the very next over, bowled Akshay Darekar (1).
Nayar began a counter-attack including a couple of sixes off left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem to complete his 50 and team’s 200.
When East started their chase, almost all batsmen got starts but couldn’t finish off the game as winners were reduced to 121 for five. Left-arm spinner Darekar (5/87) got all the wickets. But an unbroken 52-run stand between Biplab Samantray (27 not out) and Anushtup Majumdar (26 not out) clinched the issue.
Score Board
WEST ZONE (I Innings): 314 all out in 91.5 overs
EAST ZONE (I Innings): 343 all out in 132.2 overs
WEST ZONE (II Innings, O/n: 131/5 in 30 overs): Harshad Khadiwale c Goswami b Mohanty 4, Rohit Motwani c Samantray b Nechim 37, Ambati Rayudu c Goswami b Mohanty 26, Cheteshwar Pujara b Nechim 2, Suryakumar Yadav c Jaggi b Nechim 34, Kaustabh Pawar c Goswami b Dinda 37, Abhishek Nayar c Natraj Behera b Dinda 58, Akshay Darekar b Dinda 1, Sandip Maniar c Samantray b Nadeem 1, Samad Fallah c Vardhan b Nadeem 0, Ishwar Chaudhary (not out) 0. Extras (W-1) 1. Total (all out, 46.1 overs) 201.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-55, 3-64, 4-88, 5-111, 6-180, 7-184, 8-201, 9-201.
Bowling: Ashok Dinda 19.1-4-82-3, Basant Mohanty 14-1-60-2, Abu Nechim 7-1-31-3, Shahbaz Nadeem 6-0-28-2.
EAST ZONE (II Innings): Dheeraj Jadhav c Motwani b Darekar 26, Manish Vardhan c Rayudu b Darekar 31, Natraj Behera c Pujara b Darekar 34, Ishank Jaggi c Yadav b Darekar 15, Shreevats Goswami c sub b Darekar 6, Biplab Samantray (not out) 27, Anustup Majumdar (not out) 26. Extras (B-4, LB-1, NB-3) 8. Total (for 5 wkts, 56.3 overs) 173.
Fall of wickets: 1-52, 2-85, 3-113, 4-114, 5-121.
Bowling: Ishwar Chaudhary 5-0-17-0, Sandip Maniar 2.3-0-21, Samad Fallah 19-7-27-0, Akshay Darekar 23-2-87-5, Suryakumar Yadav 7-1-16-0.
