Central Zone clinch runner-up spot
Central Zone trounced South Zone by an innings and 14 runs on the final day of the final round of Duleep Trophy matches at the Bhausaheb Bandodkar Stadium in Goa on Sunday
Staff Reporter
04-Feb-2001
Central Zone trounced South Zone by an innings and 14 runs on the final day
of the final round of Duleep Trophy matches at the Bhausaheb Bandodkar
Stadium in Goa on Sunday. The win helped Cental Zone clinch the runner-up
spot behind North Zone, who were crowned champions with a round to spare
after racing away to 23 points. Central finished on 19 to edge West Zone
into third place with 17. East Zone's tally of 13 placed them fourth while
South Zone's second successive defeat consigned them to bottom of the heap
on a measly eight points.
South began the fourth morning at 204/4, needing 205 more to make Central
bat again. Lefthanders Sridharan Sriram and Sunil Joshi extended their
fifth wicket stand to 54 before the latter was thrown out for 45. The
Karnataka allrounder who used the long handle effectively struck four fours
and two sixes in a 43 ball knock. Two overs later seamer Jai Prakash Yadav
trapped Aashish Kapoor leg before for a fourth ball duck.
Javagal Srinath contributed a brisk 30 to a 45 run seventh wicket stand with
Sriram before he handed leg spinner Narendra Hirwani his first wicket of
the match. Hemang Badani who had dropped down the order because of a stiff
neck strode to the crease at No.9 to join his Tamil Nadu colleague and they
took South through to lunch at 297/7 with Sriram undefeated on 131.
Sriram's marathon innings had spanned 7 hours and 51 minutes when medium
pacer Devendra Bundela dismissed him a second time in the match, for a
disciplined 150 (329 balls, 20 fours). Their stand was worth 57 and Central
were frustrated further by a pesky 55 run ninth wicket association between
Badani and Venkatesh Prasad. It ended when Badani was caught off Hirwani
two runs short of his fifty.
Hirwani, who did not get a bowl in the first innings when South were
hustled out for 141, polished off the match with his third wicket, having
Prasad stumped. It gave the busy wicketkeeper Rohit Jhalani his eighth
dismissal of the match as South were terminated for 395. Hirwani finished
with 3/115 and the off spinner Rahul Kanwat earned two scalps but leftarmer
Murali Kartik went wicketless in 23 overs to round off a disappointing
tourney for him.