The redundancy of the day's cricket was so pronounced at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Tuesday, the players just went through the motions.
Cricket assumed a farcical note in the second half when North Zone employed some irregular bowlers. East Zone, by virtue of its first innings lead secured on Monday, made it to the final of the Duleep Trophy.
The contest lost its competitive flair on the fourth day since East had taken the lead and shut North out with a strong batting show.
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Not enough time
Four days for a match involving zonal teams were clearly inadequate unless the pitch assisted the bowlers. This aspect was so sorely missing, it reflected in the ease with which Manish Vardhan and Anustup Majumdar hit centuries for East.
“It was difficult to motivate the bowlers. When we conceded the lead we had just a little over a day's play left to comeback. It was not possible. If only it had been a five-day match,” lamented North skipper Amit Mishra.
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It is a point that the Board's technical committee is set to discuss. Board secretary Sanjay Jagdale said, “We are also keen that Duleep Trophy matches should be played over five days. We will discuss it with the technical committee and see how best to implement the change.”
The Board was also planning to make Ranji Trophy knockout matches five-day affairs.
As for the day's play, East resuming at 120 for one, declared at 319 for five with Majumdar (144, 20x4) and Vardhan (125, 15x4) using the stage to practice for the final to be played against Central Zone at Indore from February 12.
The scores:
East Zone — 1st innings: 315.
North Zone — 1st innings: 287.
East Zone — 2nd innings: Manish Vardhan b Sangwan 125, Natraj Behera c Bisht b Awana 19, Anustup Majumdar b Patel 144, Bilap Samantray c Mishra b Sangwan 14, Ishank Jaggi (not out) 5, Wriddhiman Saha (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-9, nb-1, w-1): 12; Total (for five wkts decl in 94.2 overs): 319.
Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-296, 3-300, 4-314, 5-319.
North Zone bowling: Parvinder Awana 17-4-53-1, Patel 16-3-45-1, Pradeep Sangwan 14,2-0-78-3, Rajat Bhatia 15-3-28-0, Amit Mishra 22-4-53-0, Mandeep Singh 2-0-9-0, Rahul Dewan 3-0-18-0, Mayank Sidhana 5-0-25-0.
North Zone — 2nd innings: Rahul Dewan (run out) 45, Shikhar Dhawan c Vardhan b Nadeem 38, Pradeep Sangwan b Nadeem 3, Mandeep Singh (not out) 19, Mayank Sidhana (not out) 12; Extras (lb-9): 9; Total (for three wkts in 33 overs): 126.
Fall of wickets: 1-78, 2-86, 3-109.
East Zone bowling: Bilap Samantray 4-0-18-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 16-1-51-2, Natraj Behera 12-0-41-0, Manish Vardhan 1-0-7-0.