South Zone lifted the Duleep trophy after a gap of 15 years, beating North Zone by seven wickets after a rampaging Robin Uthappa forced the match to close on the fourth day itself, with a day to spare.
Abhinav Mukund (64 not out, 67b, 8x4, 1x6) who was a shade less aggressive than Uthappa (71, 45b, 8x4, 3x6) in the 100-run opening stand in 13.5 overs to set the early win, and Manish Pandey (37, 24b, 2x4, 3x6) were part of the run riot as South Zone reached the target of 178.
Good bowling
Earlier left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and mediumpacers Sreenath Aravind and Abhimanyu Mithun who was deadly with the second new ball, picked up three wickets each and restricted the North Zone second innings to 317.
This was the 11th time that South won the inter-zone tournament, after finishing runner-up to West Zone last season.
Paying the price
North captain Amit Mitra's statement after the match that his batsmen paid for playing extravagant strokes and the South bowlers bowled intelligently and in good areas, explained the fourth day's proceedings.
North needed a good total in the second knock to stay in the game or force a honourable draw after trailing by 140. Post lunch session saw the collapse of North even as Mithun Manhas and Nitin Saini made half centuries and Paras Dogra, followed by Yashpal Singh and captian Amit Mishra tried to stem the rot.
Even as the ACA and VDCA were planning to arrange the trophy presentation on Sunday morning, the match ended and ACA vice-president D.V.V.S. Somayajulu presented the Duleep Trophy to South Zone captain S. Badrinath, who was also adjudged Man-of-the-Match and the V.J. Divecha Trophy to runner-up North Zone.
“We created tremendous pressure early in the match by not conceding many runs and that brought us wickets. Discipline was the watchword for the team”, Badrinath said after the match.
The scores:
North Zone — 1st innings: 337.
South Zone — 1st innings: 477.
North Zone — 2nd innings: N. Saini c Gautam b Ojha 65, S. Dhawan c Sumanth b Ojha 19, Mandeep c Gautam b Aravind 22, M. Manhas c Pandey b. Aravind 79, P. Dogra c Verma b Ojha 44, Yashpal Singh (not out) 42, U. Kaul c Gautam b Aravind 3, S. Narwal c Gautam b Abhinav 0, A. Mishra lbw b Mithun 30, Ishant lbw b Mithun 1, Joginder b Mithun 0; Extras (b-4, lb-3, nb-1, w-4): 12. Total (in 88.5 overs) 317.
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-87, 3-145, 4-230, 5-244, 6-253, 7-254, 8-305, 9-317.
South Zone bowling: Vinay Kumar 16-4-64-0, Mithun 14.5-6-42-3, Ojha 25-1-94-3, Aravind 26-6-76-3, Abhinav 5-0-25-1, Verma 1-0-2-0, Uthappa 1-0-7-0.
South Zone — 2nd innings: Abhinav Mukund (not out) 64, R. Uthappa c (sub) b Narwal 71, A. Verma c and b Yashpal 0, M. Pandey b Yashpal 37, B. Sumanth (not out) 2; Extras (lb-4): 4. Total (for three wickets in 23.4 overs): 178.
Fall of wickets: 1-100, 2-100, 3-166.
North Zone bowling: S. Narwal 5.4-1-38-1, Ishant 4-0-31-0, Mishra 3-0-28-0, Joginder 1.2-0-5-0, Yashpal 6-0-40-2, Manhas 2-0-17-0, Dhawan 1.4-0-15-0.
