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North posts a thumping win

Special Correspondent

East lost six wickets for just
five runs
V.R.V. Singh picked up three wickets

Rajkot: North Zone beat East Zone by 433 runs on Thursday to advance to the Duleep Trophy final here.

Except for the indomitable spirit shown by Bengal’s Anustup Majumdar and Jharkhand’s Manish Vardhan for three hours, which reflected more than a semblance of capacity and wherewithal to keep the North attack at bay, East looked a beleaguered team.

Its last six batsmen fell in a heap after substitute Joginder Sharma had effected a direct hit run out to break the fourth-wicket stand between Majumdar (82, 181m, 150b, 14x4) and Vardhan (83, 191m, 132b,17x4).

Dramatic collapse

East’s dramatic collapse — six wickets in 22 minutes and for addition of five runs (238 to 243) — came after Majumdar, sent back, failed to beat Sharma’s perfect throw.

Thereafter leg-spinner Amit Mishra picked up two return catches — one diving to the right to take control of a leading edge from Vardhan and the other on his follow through when Debasis Mohanty lobbed a straight forward catch.

Fast bowler V.R.V. Singh was in the thick of action in his final burst and added three more victims to his first innings tally of five.

Substitute Ravi Inder Singh held a smart catch at mid-wicket to bring to an end to Haradar Das’s short stay in the middle. V.R.V. then bowled around the wicket to hit Tushar Saha’s leg stump and cleaned up S.S. Paul’s off stump.

Fast and furious

Generating speed in excess of 130kmph, the Punjab speedster picked up three wickets from the fifth ball of his 11th over to the third of his 12th.

After East had lost Arindham Das and S.S. Das by the 11th over of the day, Majumdar and Vardhan played their natural game and struck many fours, some of them stepping down the pitch. They had added 168 for the fourth wicket and looked set to score centuries when Joginder’s smart work dashed Majumdar’s hopes.

A weak shot from Vardhan, hitting against the spin and one that came off the rough, disappointingly ended his determination to notch up his first Duleep Trophy hundred.

The scores:

North Zone — 1st innings: 360.

East Zone — 1st innings: 143.

North Zone — 2nd innings: 459 for two decl.

East Zone — 2nd innings: S.S. Das lbw b Nanda 33, W. Saha b Bhatia 2, A. Das c Kaul b Malik 15, A. Majumdar (run out) 82, M. Vardhan c & b Mishra 83, H. Das c (sub) Ravi Inder b V.R.V. Singh 4, T. Saha b V. R.V. Singh 0, D. Mohanty c & b Mishra 0, R. Bose (not out) 0, S.S. Paul b V.R.V. Singh 0, H. Behera (did not bat), Extras (lb-4, nb-20) 24, Total (in 66.3 overs): 243.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-51, 3-70, 4-238, 5-242, 6-242, 7-242, 8-243, 9-243.

North bowling: Malik 16-3-63-1, Bhatia 5-4-2-1, Nanda 12-1-52-1, Mishra 13-4-37-2, Manhas 9-1-39-0, V.R.V. Singh 11.3-3-46-3.

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