Fast bowler Vidwath Kaverappa’s four-fer helped South Zone take an upper hand after West Zone were reduced to 129 for 7 at the end of the rain-marred second day’s play of the Duleep Trophy final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Thursday.
At stumps on Day 2, West Zone trail by 84 runs after bowling out South Zone for 213 in the first innings, earlier in the day.
Attacking opener Prithvi Shaw’s 65 had provided West Zone a strong start even. The right-handed batter stitched a 70-run stand with Harvik Desai for the second wicket before upper-cutting to the fielder at third man.
With both the set batters dismissed in quick succession, South Zone pacers applied pressure with some disciplined and hostile bowling.
Stylish batter Suryakumar Yadav also had a brief stay at the crease and was dismissed by Kaveerapa. Cheteshwar Pujara held one end with his solid defence before R Samarth plucked a terrific catch at square leg, to dismiss the veteran batter on 9.
After a solid start, West Zone suffered collapse and were reduced from 97 for 1 to 124 for 7. Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Atit Sheth were unbeaten at the crease when play was called off early due to bad light.
Earlier in the day, South Zone could add only 31 runs to their overnight total. Washington Sundar did the bulk of the scoring and remained unbeaten on 22 as Shams Mulani and Jadeja combined to bag the last three wickets.
Brief Scores: South Zone 213 (Hanuma Vihari 63, Tilak Varma 40; Shams Mulani 3-39, Chintan Gaja 2-27) lead West Zone 129/7 (Prithvi Shaw 65, Harvik Desai 21; Vidwath Kaverappa 4/44, Vijaykumar Vyshak 2-29) by 84 runs.
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