Duleep Trophy | South Zone in front despite Khajuria ton

Bengaluru: North Zone’s Shubham Khajuria struck a fine century but two wickets late in the day saw South Zone wrest the initiative on a battling day in their Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Saturday.

Starting the day staring at surpassing an imposing 536, North Zone seemed to be in all sorts of trouble when they were reduced to 38/2 after opening pacers Gurjapneet Singh (3/67) and MD Nidheesh dished out a strong display with the new ball at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. The duo bent their backs and elicited several appeals to leave North under a lot of pressure.

But Khajuria, one of the finest batters from Jammu and Kashmir and playing his 75th first-class match, brought his experience to the fore with a courageous 128 not out off 245 balls. With Haryana’s Nishant Sindhu too defying South Zone with a dogged 82 off 148 balls and forging a 171-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Khajuria, North took the fight to South. The way the duo were batting, almost without any trouble on a placid wicket, it looked like the game was heading to a fascinating final day with both teams vying for the all-important first innings lead.

However, a rash shot from Sindhu late in the day has now seemingly tilted the scales in favour of South. Having done hardly anything wrong until then and with stumps in sight, Sindhu chose to cut Tamil Nadu’s Gurjapneet despite a deep third man in position. It was a trap laid out by South and Sindhu just fell for it, caught by substitute fielder Shaik Rasheed.

Gurjapneet Singh (left) was the pick of bowlers for South Zone while Shubham Khajuria

One wicket led to another as skipper Mohammed Azharuddeen ran new man Kanhaiya Wadhawan out for a three-ball duck. From looking robust at one stage despite an early wobble, North slipped to 278/5 in 79 overs, still 258 runs behind South with the onus now on Khajuria to once again do all the heavy lifting on the final day. 

Unlike some of his batting colleagues, who erred in the middle, the 29-year-old Khajuria was all composure throughout his innings. A strong off-side player, he drove and cut brilliantly to nicely mix caution with aggression.

Central take lead

Shubham Sharma fell four runs short of a deserved century while Rajat Patidar (77), Upendra Yadav (87) and Harsh Dubey (75) struck half-centuries as Central Zone totally dominated a star-studded West Zone on the penultimate day of their semifinal.

Resuming the day at a commanding 229/2 in pursuit of West Zone’s 438, Central rode on a complete team effort to slay a strong West Zone. With as many as five batters scoring half-centuries, including a 76 from Danish Malewar on Friday, Central never looked in any danger whatsoever, taking stumps at 556/8 in 157 overs. With just a day to go, Central have all but assured themselves of a spot in the final, due to be held from Sept 11-15. 

Brief scores: South Zone: 536 vs North Zone: 278/5 in 79 overs (Shubham Khajuria 128 n.o., Ayush Badoni 40, Nishant Sindhu 82; Gurjapneet Singh 3-67).

West Zone: 438 vs Central Zone (O/n: 229/2): 556/8 in 157 overs (Ayush Pandey 40, Danish Malewar 76, Shubham Sharma 96, Rajat Patidar 77, Upendra Yadav 87, Harsh Dubey 75, Saransh Jain 37 n.o., Deepak Chahar 33; Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 4-101).