Pacers Ashok Dinda and Basant Mohanty shared seven wickets between them as East Zone thrashed West Zone by 102 runs on the fourth and final day to enter the semifinals of the Duleep Trophy, here on Saturday.
If Dinda (3/40) ripped through the top order, Mohanty (4/44) took care of the tail as West were bundled out for just 135 in their second innings while chasing a victory target of 238 at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium.
Resuming the day on 12 for one, requiring another 226 runs for a win, West struggled against the pace attack of the East led by Dinda and Mohanty with their second innings lasting less than 40 overs into the day.
Dinda bowled Aditya Tare for 11 in the seventh over of the day and five overs later Laxmi Shukla jolted West further by having their captain Cheteshwar Pujara caught behind for nine.
East kept losing wickets and were never allowed to form a decent partnership, the highest stand being 28 for the fifth wicket between Parthiv Patel and Suryakumar Yadav.
Parthiv made 39, the highest score of the innings, before becoming Dinda’s third victim.Yusuf Pathan was the last of the recognised batsmen to be dismissed, caught behind off Mohanty for 14. Once the elder Pathan was dismissed the last vestiges of hope West entertained to cross the line in this match.
The lively Odisha medium-pacer took the remaining three wickets to finish with four for 44.
East will now take on defending champions South in the second semifinal at the same venue from October 22, while Central will meet North in the first semifinal at Mohali, also from October 22.
