Alur/Bengaluru, July 7: Cheteshwar Pujara compiled a hundred full of intent to push West Zone to 292 for 9 in their second innings against Central Zone, and place his side firmly on the path to Duleep Trophy final. Meanhile, Pacer Vyshak Vijaykumar engineered a middle-order collapse with a five-wicket haul, putting South Zone on course towards the victory target of 215 in their Duleep Trophy semi-final against North Zone on Friday.
Riding on Pujara’s 133 off 278 balls, West, after starting the day at 149 for 3, swelled their lead to a commanding 384 on a rain-hit third day which forced an early closure.
Pujara, overnight 50, fell into his gear early and never really gave any chance to the bowlers. His innings had 14 boundaries and a six and he batted for 366 minutes.
The Central, in fact, started the day on a bright note dismissing Sarfaraz Khan in the very first over of the day.
The Mumbai youngster edged left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar to stumper Upendra Yadav, who held onto a rather simple chance. It also ended an underwhelming outing for him, making 0 and 6 here.
The Central bowlers continued to trouble batsmen at the other end, but Pujara was immovable. The Saurashtra star indicated his intent in the first session itself, playing out 102 balls for 42 runs with three fours.
Vyshak takes five
From a relatively comfortable 146 for three, Vyshak’s (5/76 in 15 overs) burst with the old ball found North Zone slumping to 171 for 8 before they were bowled out for 211 in just 56.4 overs in their second innings on a rain hit day three.
Before heavens opened up in the final session, South Zone openers B Sai Sudharsan (3 batting) and seasoned Mayank Agarwal (15 batting) knocked off 21 off the target and would hope that weather doesn’t play spoilsport on the final day.
The South Zone batters would also like to remember that they had conceded a slender but a very important three-run lead in the first innings, which could be decisive on the final day in case they don’t get time to chase down the target. (PTI)
