<p>Bharadwaj: From the very moment that Yash Rathod flicked one along the ground to the mid-wicket fence on the sixth ball of the morning, it looked like it was going to be a very long third day for South Zone at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence here in Bengaluru. </p>.<p>The same feeling persisted throughout the first session, where it looked like the hosts had put their swords away, conceding 104 runs in 34 overs. </p>.Duleep Trophy: Composed Yash Rathod makes a statement .<p>However, post lunch, South looked like a completely different unit. They did not allow the tail to wag, picking four wickets in the next 7.1 overs, bowling CZ out for 511. In their second innings, they came out fighting with hunger and intent that they lacked for most of the first day as they finished 129/2 in 33 overs after bad light pushed for early stumps. </p>.<p>Karnataka’s Ravichandran Smaran, who had thrown his wicket away cheaply in the first innings, looked steady, driving with no restraint. He also survived a close leg before shout that was overturned by the third umpire, to finish unbeaten on 37. </p>.Duleep Trophy 2025: Rajat Patidar, Yash Rathod trouble South. <p>Ricky Bhui, too, was positive in intent and hung around with Smaran to see it through, as they closed the day out, having chiselled the deficit down to 233.</p>.<p>Mohit Kale (38) and Tanmay Agarwal (26) ensured the visitors would have to battle hard to breach into the middle order, negating the new ball. Kale took on Deepak Chahar, whom he whipped and flicked around the park. Just when things were starting to look particularly good, he was pinned by Saransh Jain. </p>.<p>Agarwal started nervously against pace, but soon found his feet, only for him to walk back for 22 after Kuldeep Sen’s bail-trimmer kissing the off-stump. </p>.<p>Earlier in the day, Central Zone persisted to be cold-blooded as the overnight batters, Rathod and Saransh, seized their chances and continued to add to their lead.</p>.<p>It also looked like Central were doing South a favour, scoring 93 runs off Ricky Bhui in 26 overs, all without much risk, proving that picking just a specialist spinner in Ankit Sharma was a bad choice. </p>.<p>To make matters worse, Saransh nicked one to the keeper on 61, while looking to run it past slip. However, no SZ player picked it up and had their hands on their heads minutes later when they saw the replay on the big screen. They then burnt a review when the 34-year-old spinner’s quicker one was going down leg. </p>.<p>Rathod, who started slowly, got back to work, milking runs and looking in ominous touch. However, he missed out on a well-deserved double ton when Gurpajneet nipped one back, which breached his defence on 194. </p>.<p>Deepak Chahar entertained with two sweetly struck sixes and three boundaries, before nicking it to the keeper on 37. </p>.<p>The left-arm spinner Ankit, who was logging in extra hours, finally ended South Zone’s 145.1-over stay, picking both Kumar Kartikeya and Aditya Thakare. The Puducherry spinner ended with figures of 4/180 in 45.1 overs. Gurjapneet, who bowled his heart out, running in for 28 overs, finished with 4/124. </p>.<p>This isn’t the first time South Zone are chasing the game in the final. However, with the surface not playing many tricks, they will need to be disciplined, clinical and flawless to pull this rabbit out of the hat. </p>.<p><strong>SCOREBOARD</strong> SOUTH ZONE (I Innings): 149 all out CENTRAL ZONE (I Innings): Danish Malewar c Bhui b Gurjapneet 53 (120b 5x4) Akshay Wadkar b Koushik 22 (60b 3x4) Shubham Sharma b Gurjapneet 6 (18b 1x4) Rajat Patidar c Azharuddeen b Gurjapneet 101 (115b 12x4 1x6) Yash Rathod b Gurjapneet 194 (286b 17x4 2x6) Upendra Yadav c Azharuddeen b Nidheesh 5 (10b) Saransh Jain b Ankit 69 (193b 7x4) Deepak Chahar c Azharuddeen b Ankit 37 (49b 3x4 2x6) Kumar Kartikeya c & b Ankit 8 (12b 1x4) Adithya Thakare c Tanay b Ankit 1 (7b) Kuldeep Sen (not out) 1 (7b). Extras (LB-7 NB-6 W-1) 14. TOTAL (all out 145.1 overs) 511 Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Wadkar) 2-74 (Shubham) 3-93 (Malewar) 4-260 (Patidar) 5-266 (Upendra) 6-442 (Saransh) 7-500 (Rathod) 8-500 (Chahar) 9-509 (Aditya). Bowling: Gurjapneet 28-2-124-4 Ankit 44.1-5-180-4 Nidheesh 19-4-43-1 Koushik 28-6-64-1 Bhui 26-2-93-0 SOUTH ZONE (II Innings): Tanmay Agarwal b Sen 26 (42b 2x4) Mohit Kale lbw Jain 38 (61b 7x4) Ravichandran Smaran (batting) 37 (50b 5x4 1x6) Ricky Bhui (batting) 26 (46b 3x4 1x6). Extras (NB-1 W-1) 2. TOTAL (for 2 wkts 33 overs) 129. Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Kale) 2-76 (Agarwal). Bowling: Chahar 6-1-37-0 Thakare 6-2-15-0 Kartikeya 6-0-23-0 Saransh 10-1-32-1 Sen 5-1-22-1</p>
<p>Bharadwaj: From the very moment that Yash Rathod flicked one along the ground to the mid-wicket fence on the sixth ball of the morning, it looked like it was going to be a very long third day for South Zone at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence here in Bengaluru. </p>.<p>The same feeling persisted throughout the first session, where it looked like the hosts had put their swords away, conceding 104 runs in 34 overs. </p>.Duleep Trophy: Composed Yash Rathod makes a statement .<p>However, post lunch, South looked like a completely different unit. They did not allow the tail to wag, picking four wickets in the next 7.1 overs, bowling CZ out for 511. In their second innings, they came out fighting with hunger and intent that they lacked for most of the first day as they finished 129/2 in 33 overs after bad light pushed for early stumps. </p>.<p>Karnataka’s Ravichandran Smaran, who had thrown his wicket away cheaply in the first innings, looked steady, driving with no restraint. He also survived a close leg before shout that was overturned by the third umpire, to finish unbeaten on 37. </p>.Duleep Trophy 2025: Rajat Patidar, Yash Rathod trouble South. <p>Ricky Bhui, too, was positive in intent and hung around with Smaran to see it through, as they closed the day out, having chiselled the deficit down to 233.</p>.<p>Mohit Kale (38) and Tanmay Agarwal (26) ensured the visitors would have to battle hard to breach into the middle order, negating the new ball. Kale took on Deepak Chahar, whom he whipped and flicked around the park. Just when things were starting to look particularly good, he was pinned by Saransh Jain. </p>.<p>Agarwal started nervously against pace, but soon found his feet, only for him to walk back for 22 after Kuldeep Sen’s bail-trimmer kissing the off-stump. </p>.<p>Earlier in the day, Central Zone persisted to be cold-blooded as the overnight batters, Rathod and Saransh, seized their chances and continued to add to their lead.</p>.<p>It also looked like Central were doing South a favour, scoring 93 runs off Ricky Bhui in 26 overs, all without much risk, proving that picking just a specialist spinner in Ankit Sharma was a bad choice. </p>.<p>To make matters worse, Saransh nicked one to the keeper on 61, while looking to run it past slip. However, no SZ player picked it up and had their hands on their heads minutes later when they saw the replay on the big screen. They then burnt a review when the 34-year-old spinner’s quicker one was going down leg. </p>.<p>Rathod, who started slowly, got back to work, milking runs and looking in ominous touch. However, he missed out on a well-deserved double ton when Gurpajneet nipped one back, which breached his defence on 194. </p>.<p>Deepak Chahar entertained with two sweetly struck sixes and three boundaries, before nicking it to the keeper on 37. </p>.<p>The left-arm spinner Ankit, who was logging in extra hours, finally ended South Zone’s 145.1-over stay, picking both Kumar Kartikeya and Aditya Thakare. The Puducherry spinner ended with figures of 4/180 in 45.1 overs. Gurjapneet, who bowled his heart out, running in for 28 overs, finished with 4/124. </p>.<p>This isn’t the first time South Zone are chasing the game in the final. However, with the surface not playing many tricks, they will need to be disciplined, clinical and flawless to pull this rabbit out of the hat. </p>.<p><strong>SCOREBOARD</strong> SOUTH ZONE (I Innings): 149 all out CENTRAL ZONE (I Innings): Danish Malewar c Bhui b Gurjapneet 53 (120b 5x4) Akshay Wadkar b Koushik 22 (60b 3x4) Shubham Sharma b Gurjapneet 6 (18b 1x4) Rajat Patidar c Azharuddeen b Gurjapneet 101 (115b 12x4 1x6) Yash Rathod b Gurjapneet 194 (286b 17x4 2x6) Upendra Yadav c Azharuddeen b Nidheesh 5 (10b) Saransh Jain b Ankit 69 (193b 7x4) Deepak Chahar c Azharuddeen b Ankit 37 (49b 3x4 2x6) Kumar Kartikeya c & b Ankit 8 (12b 1x4) Adithya Thakare c Tanay b Ankit 1 (7b) Kuldeep Sen (not out) 1 (7b). Extras (LB-7 NB-6 W-1) 14. TOTAL (all out 145.1 overs) 511 Fall of wickets: 1-55 (Wadkar) 2-74 (Shubham) 3-93 (Malewar) 4-260 (Patidar) 5-266 (Upendra) 6-442 (Saransh) 7-500 (Rathod) 8-500 (Chahar) 9-509 (Aditya). Bowling: Gurjapneet 28-2-124-4 Ankit 44.1-5-180-4 Nidheesh 19-4-43-1 Koushik 28-6-64-1 Bhui 26-2-93-0 SOUTH ZONE (II Innings): Tanmay Agarwal b Sen 26 (42b 2x4) Mohit Kale lbw Jain 38 (61b 7x4) Ravichandran Smaran (batting) 37 (50b 5x4 1x6) Ricky Bhui (batting) 26 (46b 3x4 1x6). Extras (NB-1 W-1) 2. TOTAL (for 2 wkts 33 overs) 129. Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Kale) 2-76 (Agarwal). Bowling: Chahar 6-1-37-0 Thakare 6-2-15-0 Kartikeya 6-0-23-0 Saransh 10-1-32-1 Sen 5-1-22-1</p>