Jayant Yadav-led North Zone crush North East Zone by 511 runs in Duleep Trophy quarter-final encounter at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. On Day 4, it did not take much time for North Zone to bundle out North East Zone for 154 in a mammoth run chase of 666 as Pulkit Narang led the bowling attack with a four-fer.
Starting the day with overnight score of 58/3, Palzor Tamang and Nilesh Lamichaney survived the first hour. The partnership was broken by Nishant Sindhu in the 31st over of the innings. The left-arm spinner took the wicket of Lamichaney. He scored 27 runs from 64 deliveries including four fours. He shared a 57-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Few overs later, Tamang's resistance came to an end as well. Tamang missed his half-century and got dismissed for 40. He hit four fours and one six in his patient knock. Sindhu struck again and dismissed North East Zone skipper Rongsen Jonathan.
Then Narang got the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Prafullomani Singh for a five-ball duck. North East Zone suffered a batting collapse as Narang struck twice again and skipper Yadav got a wicket as well. North East Zone could only last 47.5 overs as they suffered a massive 511-run defeat.
Earlier Jonathan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Centuries from Dhruv Shorey, Sindhu and Harshit Rana helped them post 540 on the board before declaring. In reply, North East Zone got all out for 134 as Siddharth Kaul and Narang got three-fers.
Yadav did not enforce follow-on. Half-centuries from wicketkeeper-batter Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar and Yadav helped them post 259/6 and set a 666-run target.
19-year-old Sindhu was adjudged 'Player of the match' for 150-run knock and two wickets in the fourth innings.
In the other quarter-final clash, Central Zone beat East Zone by 170 runs. In the run chase of 300, Abhimanyu Easwaran-led East Zone got all out for 129. The left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar starred with an eight-fer.
Now, North Zone will take on Mayank Agarwal-led South Zone starting July 5 at the same venue.
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