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Delhi's young fast-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana stole the show on Day 1 of Duleep Trophy semi-final at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The North Zone all-rounder first contributed with a crucial 22-ball 31 cameo and then got two of South Zone batters out for a duck. Rana’s all-round show helped North Zone make a comeback after a lacklustre batting display.
South Zone skipper Hanuma Vihari won the toss and opted to field first. Vidwath Kaverappa wreaked havoc with the new ball as Dhruv Shorey and Ankit Kalsi became his victims. Both the batters edged one to wicketkeeper Ricky Bhui. Then Sai Kishore trapped Prashant Chopra in front of the wickets.
Reduced to 18/3 in the 14th over, Prabhsimran Singh launched a counter attack. Prabhsimran scored freely and shared a 79-run partnership for the fourth wicket. He missed his half-century as medium KV Sasikanth provided a breakthrough. Prabhsimran scored 49 runs from 52 balls including six fours and one six. Sasikanth then get rid of Ankit Kumar as well who scored 33 runs from 70 balls.
Kaverappa was brought back into the attack and he got the wickets of Jayant Yadav and Pulkit Narang. Nishant Sindhu could not last long and scored 27 runs from 40 balls. The partnership between Rana and Vaibhav Arora entertained the crowd. Rana scored 31 runs from just 22 balls including four fours and two sixes. Arora remained unbeaten for 23 as Kaverappa got the wicket of Baltej Singh to complete his fifer. North Zone could manage to post 198 on the board from 58.3 overs.
South Zone's reply was not convincing. On his Duleep Trophy debut, in-form Sai Sudharsan was the first one to fall to Baltej. In his next over, Balrej got the wicket of Ravikumar Samarth as well. Rana troubled Vihari with sheer pace and got through his defense. Vihari got out for a four-ball duck. It was followed by a golden duck from Bhui.
Agarwal and Tilak Varma tried to steady the ship before rain played spoilsport and an hour's play was lost on Day 1. At the end of day’s play, South Zone were 63/4 from 17 overs, trailing by 135 runs.
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