Duleep Trophy SF Roundup

Royal Challengers’ players sizzled in the domestic Duleep Trophy semifinals between South Zone and Central Zone at Indore with the latter emerging victorious in style and moving into the finals.

Duleep Trophy SF Roundup

Royal Challengers’ players sizzled in the domestic Duleep Trophy semifinals between South Zone and Central Zone at Indore with the former emerging victorious in style and moving into the finals.

Abhimanyu Mithun celebrated his selection in the Indian team with a five wicket haul in the match, with the best of 3/64 coming off in the first innings.

Vinay Kumar, who is picked for the Borads President’s XI team, and playing in the South Zone team in the Duleep Trophy, had a marvellous match with both the bat and the ball. He had match figures of 7/152 with five of them coming the first innings. Vinay then padded up to stroke a 53-ball 48 in first innings total of 295 which took SZ nearer to CZ’s first innings total of 333.

Praveen Kumar, another Royal Challenger, appearing for Central Zone was lethal with the ball as he picked up five wickets for 82 in the first innings. Then PK was in his elements with the bat striking a 39-ball 40 in CZ’s total of 252.

Manish Pandey, picked up for the BP XI side, played in his usual aggressive and flamboyant style to score 59 off 72 balls in SZ’s winning total of 293/5. His partnership with SZ skipper S. Badrinath (82) of 108 runs paved the way for the team’s victory. Pandey was not so successful in the first innings scoring only 15.

CM Gautam, the wicket keeper batsman from Club RCB, shone with the bat in both the innings scoring 52 in the first and an unbeaten 25 in the second innings. His partnership of 65 runs with R Ashwin (59 not out) took SZ to victory.

Two other Royal Challengers featured in the match, however had forgettable performances. Robin Uthappa, playing for SZ, failed to capitalise on a good batting wicket scoring only 19 and 13 in the two innings. Medium pacer Pankaj Singh could only muster 2 wickets in the match.

South Zone now meets West Zone in the Duleep Trophy Final at Hyderabad from February 2.


Brief Scores:

Central Zone (1st Innings): 333 (Mohd Kaif 112, Vinay Kumar 5/102, Mithun 3/64)
South Zone (1st Innings): 295 (Gautam 52, Ashwin 58, Praveen Kumar 5/82, RP Singh 3/65)
Central Zone (2nd Innings): 252 (Praveen Kumar 40, Vinay Kumar 2/50, Mithun 2/54, Ashwin 6/67)
South Zone (2nd Innings): 293/5 (Badrinath 82, Manish Pandey 59, Ashwin 59*)

South Zone wins by 5 wickets