West Zone thrashed South Zone by 294 runs to seal the Duleep Trophy in what turned out to be a one-sided win for the team. However, sometime before the match was actually wrapped up, team India veteran Ajinkya Rahane displayed his leadership skills as a captain when he chose to send back star batter and youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal to the stands.
The incident occurred on the fifth day when West Zone captain Rahane sent youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal away from the field due to disciplinary issues. Jaiswal had been warned by the umpires on separate occasions because of his aggressive sledging towards the South Zone batters, and Ravi Teja in particular, who also had a verbal argument with Jaiswal between an over.
The 50th over of the innings saw Jaiswal and Ravi Teja engaged in a heated argument. Rahane quickly ran to calm the situation, with umpires also intervening. While Rahane tried to calm Jaiswal down, he continued sledging which eventually forced the skipper to send him away from the field. Yashasvi, displeased with his captain's decision, kept murmuring in his breath as he left the field.
Earlier, the 20-year-old slammed a double century in the second innings, scoring 263 off 323 balls to put the West Zone in driving seat in the Duleep Trophy final. His knock steered the side to a strong score of 585/4, with the South Zone needing to chase a 529-run target to lift the trophy. Prolific run-scorer Sarfaraz Khan recorded a fine, unbeaten century (127 off 178 balls) to continue West's charge after the double centurion Jaiswal was dismissed.
Rahane, meanwhile, had an indifferent outing in the final as he recorded scores of 8 and 15 across the two innings. Also featuring in this match is Shreyas Iyer, who is also included as one of the standbys for the upcoming T20 World Cup; Iyer scored 71 in the second innings of the game.
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