Vidwath & South in seventh heaven

Bengaluru, July 14

South Zone underpropped the effort of their bowlers with plucky batting in their second innings, reaching 181/7 to gain control of the Duleep Trophy final against West Zone on Day 3 here today.

South are now ahead by 248 runs. Earlier, pacer Vidwath Kaverappa bagged seven wickets (7/53) as South bowled out West for 146 to grab a first-innings lead of 67 runs. It was Vidwath’s career-best First-Class bowling figures, and second-best for South in the tournament after Venkatesh Prasad’s 7/38 against North Zone in 1993.

South’s charge to that position of strength with the bat was not all smooth sailing. They made a stuttering start to their second innings, losing R Samarth and N Tilak Varma in quick succession.

South were 8/2 at that stage and it was not an ideal situation for them as the lead had not even crossed 100. However, Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari dented West’s ambitions of making further inroads. The third-wicket pair added 64 runs in a little more than 14 overs to bring South back into the game.

But just as the partnership was blossoming, Mayank’s effort to pull Arzan Nagwaswalla’s short-pitched ball ended in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav.

Atit Sheth then induced a faint outside edge from Vihari as South slipped to 95/4. However, Ricky Bhui and Sachin Baby produced the most solid alliance of the South’s second innings for the fifth wicket by adding 59 runs off 97 balls.

Brief scores: South Zone: 213 and 181/7 in 60 overs (Vihari 42; Jadeja 2/27, Sheth 2/38); West Zone: 146 in 51 overs (Shaw 65; Kaverappa 7/53, Vyshak 2/33).