Duleep Trophy Final: West Zone have one hand on trophy

Reeling at 156 for six at stumps on the fourth and penultimate day, South Zone were staring at a heavy defeat as they trailed by 375 runs. West Zone put up a mammoth 585 for four in their second innings after conceding a 57-run first-innings lead to their opponents. Prolific run-scorer Sarfaraz Khan recorded a fine, unbeaten century (127 off 178 balls) to continue West's charge after overnight double centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed for 265 at the SNR College Cricket Ground.

At the end of third day's play, West Zone were 376 for three and Jaiswal was batting on 209 off 244 balls. Jaiswal began the day from where he had left last evening, adding seven more boundaries to the 23 he had hit by the end of third day's play. Jaiswal eventually fell to off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham, having faced 330 deliveries during his monumental knock and added 164 runs with Sarfaraz for the fourth wicket.

There was no respite, however, for the South bowlers as Sarfaraz went about his task with consummate ease to swell his team's overall lead and put them in a commanding position. In all, Sarfaraz found the fence 11 times and cleared it twice, while also stitching together an unbroken partnership of 103 runs with Het Patel (51 not out) to compound South Zone's misery. The declaration from West skipper Ajinkya Rahane came after Sarfaraz completed his century on Duleep Trophy debut.

Patel, coming off an excellent 98 in the first innings, scored his runs quickly, facing just 61 balls while hitting seven fours and a six. Batting for five sessions, West left their opponents flattened, and the South Zone team did not quite recover from that. This was evident from their second innings batting as, with the exception of Rohan Kunnummal (93