Ajinkya Rahane-led West Zone beat South Zone to win the Duleep Trophy 2022. The final wicket was picked up by Tanush Kotian for West Zone as K Gowtham fell after scoring 14 runs.
The day’s play started with the South Zone needing a mammoth 375 runs, with mere 4 wickets in hand. But, the South Zone seemed to have started well in the last and final having scored the first 50 runs of the day in a relatively comfortable manner. However, South Zone’s Sai Kishore edged Gaja’s ball to the hands of the slip fielder Panchal. The following batsmen did not last long as the South Zone were all-out for a total of 234 runs. No one except for the opener Rohan Kunnummal could get a good score. Rohan played a very good inning of 93 runs but the lack of support from the other South Zone batsmen was evident.
Yashasvi Jaiswal’s match-winning knock
Yashasvi Jaiswal played a massive 265 runs innings in the second innings for West Zone. The right-handed youngster played some mesmerizing shots all throughout his innings and seemingly batted South Zone out of the final. He was accompanied by Sarfaraz Khan who recorded a fine, unbeaten century (127 off 178 balls) to continue West’s charge for the Duleep Trophy 2022.
Jaiswal eventually fell to offspinner K Gowtham, having faced 330 deliveries during his monumental knock and added 164 runs with Sarfaraz for the fourth wicket. The declaration from West captain Ajinkya Rahane came after Sarfaraz completed his century on his Duleep Trophy debut.
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West Zone come back from behind
The first innings were bowlers’ delight for both teams. Having won the toss, West Zone captain Ajinkya Rahane decided to bat first. Besides Het Patel who played a fine inning of 98 runs, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan and Jaydev Unadkat contributed with 30+ scores. They finished the first innings with a total of 270 runs.
Among the South Zone bowlers, left-arm orthodox spinner Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore picked up 5 important wickets and was the lead bowler for his team. Amongst other, Ravi Teja picked 3, and both Basil Thampi and Cheepurapalli Stephen each got 2 wickets to their name.
The South Batsmen did not have a great start to their first innings having lost 2 wickets with just 40 runs on board. Tamil Nadu batsman, Baba Indrajith played a fine knock of 118 runs, who was followed by a couple of 40-plus scores as they finished the innings with a total of 327 runs, a 57 runs lead. But, the lead was no where near enough as the West Zone batters blasted the lead away.
The Man of the Series of Duleep Trophy 2022 Jaydev Unadkat picked up 4 wickets and was accompanied by 3 wickets from Atit Seth.
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