South canter to 14th title

West Zone’s dreams of another Duleep Trophy title hinged on Priyank Panchal’s temperament on the final day of the final against South Zone. After all, he had carried them to within 116 runs of a 298-run chase on the back of his unbeaten 92 as of Saturday.

Maybe it was the nerves or it was just morning lethargy, either way, Panchal let his bat hang well outside the off stump to a short of length delivery from Vidwath Kaverappa and ended up edging it to an already-smiling Ricky Bhui behind the stumps.

“The ball was reversing yesterday so I thought it would do the same today, but the ball straightened instead,” explained a rueful Panchal in the post-match press conference.

While it would be another four scalps before the inevitable unfolded, Panchal’s misjudgement was the one that mattered for it ensured that South would go on to win their 14th title in the wake of their 75-run win at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Sunday.

One would have expected more of a fight from West as they were rather well placed at 182 for 5 overnight, but to see them lose five wickets in 21.4 overs in 113 minutes was disappointing, especially the way in which they came undone.

After Panchal’s costly lapse, Shams Mulani, who is usually recognised as a decent bat, couldn’t help but hang his head after a nothing delivery from V Koushik (4/36) stopped on him and ended up lobbing to Mayank Agarwal at short cover.

Atit Sheth, the last of the recognised batters for West, remained at the non-striker’s end with nothing to offer to his departing colleagues. He did, however, try and keep strike to keep the tailenders from getting exposed.

That ploy worked a charm until Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Chintan Gaja went after left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (4/57) and ended up offering catches to Washington Sundar at mid-off and Koushik at short mid-wicket respectively.

Sheth, out of options, thought it best to go on the offensive and so he tried to heave Sai Kishore though there were five fielders in the deep. The despondent move ended in Washington’s hands at long-on, and South’s players were rushing to grab the stumps for they had avenged the loss from the previous edition against the same opposition.

South's players proceeded to chant ‘Yeh dosti’ - a popular Bollywood track - as if to suggest that their team bonding is what won them the game. And frankly, they wouldn’t be wrong to think so for they found someone to deliver for them each step of the way, and they genuinely seemed to be enjoying each other's company.

“Someone asked me before the tournament, how difficult it would be to gel as a team… we won the trophy so it’s easy for me to say how that went for us,” said South skipper Hanuma Vihari. “But frankly, it was a pleasure to guide a team like this. In tournaments like this, often it becomes about personal agendas (because the selectors are watching) but I didn’t see that at all from this team. Everybody wanted to win, and they wanted to win as a team.”

That they did.