South Zone spinners were too much to handle North Zone on Day 4 of the Duleep Trophy second semi-final clash. The spin trio made short work of North Zone batting lineup as they lost by a record-margin of 650 runs. Only once in First-Class cricket in India, a team has won by a big margin. It happened earlier this year when Mumbai beat Uttarakhand in Ranji Trophy 2022 knockout clash.
Chasing a gigantic target of 745, North Zone had lost the chance to make it to the final on the basis of first innings total. However, they were expected to go down fighting and only one batter walked out with that intent. Apart from 19-year-old opener, no other North Zone batter made an impact.
Krishnappa Gowtham was the first to strike. He got the wicket of opener Manan Vohra in the fifth over. Nishant Sindhu stayed in the middle for a while but became victim to left-arm spinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore. From then, North Zone suffered a dramatic batting collapse. Dhruv Shorey, skipper Mandeep Singh and Himanshu Rana got out without scoring runs. After three ducks, wicketkeeper-batter Anmol Malhotra got out after scoring just a single. Left-arm spinner Tanay Thyagarajan and Kishore got two wickets each during this passage.
North Zone were reduced to 72/6 in 14th over. Meanwhile, Dhull kept on firing and got to his half-century. On the other end, Pulkit Narang tried to defend as many deliveries as he could. Gowtham broke the partnership with the wicket of India's former Under-19 World Cup-winning captain. The teenager scored 59 runs from 58 deliveries including seven fours and one six.
Narang's fightback was ended by Thyagarajan. He faced as many as 523 deliveries to score two runs. Mayank Dagar stayed in the middle for a while but lost his wicket to Gowtham. Dagar scored eight runs from 23 deliveries including two boundaries. Navdeep Saini did not walk out to batter as he was injured. North Zone's innings came to an end in the 31st over as they could not even cross the 100-run mark.
Earlier, in the second innings, South Zone declared after putting 315/4 on the board. T Ravi Teja scored an unbeaten 104 whereas openers Rohan Kunnummal (77) and Mayank Agarwal (64) contributed with half-centuries.
North Zone batters did not impress in the first innings either. Their batters got off to decent starts but failed to convert them into a big score. Kishore rushed through the lineup and got 7 wickets for 70 runs. For North Zone, Sindhu top-scored with 40 as the team got all out for 207.
In the first innings, North Zone batters had to toil hard in the middle. Kunnummal (143), skipper Hanuma Vihari (134) and wicketkeeper-batter Ricky Bhui's (103*) centuries helped them post 630/8.
South Zone will now face West Zone in the final at SNR College Cricket Ground, Coimbatore starting September 21. West Zone registered a comfortable win as well with a comfortable 279-run over Central Zone.
