North in charge, but South not far behind

Sai Kishore’s gamble against Jayant Yadav may not have paid dividends, but with the Duleep Trophy semifinal between South Zone and North Zone destined for a result, it may not matter in the end.

When Sai charged down the track to try and hit off-spinner Jayant over the ropes in the 55th over, as he had the over prior, South needed four runs to overtake North’s first-innings tally of 198.

Instead, Jayant got Sai stumped by wicketkeeper Prabhsimran Singh, and South were bowled out for 195 all out on the second day of the four-day contest at the M Chinnaswamy stadium. At stumps, North reached 51 for 2 to extend their lead to 54 runs.

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A rather disappointing outcome given that Mayank Agarwal (76) and Tilak Varma (46) had done well enough to carry South from 35 for 4 to 145 despite conditions heavily favouring the seamers.

The sun went in and out of focus for the better part of the day, curtailing the play. There was the sporadic drizzle slowing proceedings too.

In all, only 48.4 overs were possible on the day, and in those overs, Baltej Singh (2/40), Vaibhav Arora (3/57) and Harshit Rana (2/41) feasted.

South pacers - Karnataka boys Vidwath Kaverappa and Vaishak Vijaykumar - too took a wicket each and dented North a tad before a hurried spell of rain and subsequent bad light saw the umpires put an end to the stop-start misery.

Evidently, the conditions were for the seamers to exploit.

On that note then it’s important to put into perspective skipper Jayant’s role in North’s success as he scalped the wickets of Mayank, Washington Sundar and Sai for figures of 3 for 38 from 11.4 overs.

“The wicket is a bit damp, and the ball moved about quite a bit so my focus was to stay on till the end,” said Tilak at the end of day’s play. “Mayank’s wicket was crucial at that stage. Vaibhav Arora’s over (47th) changed things because we lost two wickets in that over.”

Having earned breathing space via Mayank and Tilak, South would have hoped for things to play out a bit differently, but the Karnataka’s opener’s wicket changed the dynamic in haste.

After Mayank was caught by Ankit Kumar, South lost Washington, Tilak, KV Sasikanth, Vyshak Vijaykumar and Sai in under ten overs.

The capitulation wasn’t unexpected for the conditions were tricky even for South's much-hyped batting order, but North's bowlers must be commended for sticking to the basics and not trying too hard.

Now to see if South’s bowlers can do the same, and also if weather will allow for a full session of play in the coming days.

Brief scores: At M Chinnaswamy stadium: North Zone: 198 all out and 51/2 in 11 overs vs South Zone (O/n: 63/4): 195 all out in 54.4 overs (Mayank Agarwal 76, Tilak Varma 46; Baltej Singh 2-40, Vaibhav Arora 3-57, Harshit Rana 2-41, Jayant Yadav 3-38).

At Alur: West Zone (O/n: 216/8): 220 all out (Prithvi Shaw 26, Cheteshwar Pujara 28, Atit Sheth 74, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 39; Shivam Mavi 6-44) and 149/3 in 39 overs (Prithvi Shaw 25, Cheteshwar Pujara 50 batting, Suryakumar Yadav 52 batting; Saurabh Kumar 2-34) vs Central Zone: 128 all out in 31.3 overs (Dhruv Jurel 46, Rinku Singh 48; Arzan Nagwaswalla 5-74, Chintan Gaja 2-25, Atit Sheth 3-27).