Duleep Trophy: Saurabh Kumar Triggers East Collapse, Central Close In On Win

Central Zone's Saurabh Kumar bagged four wickets to reduce East Zone to 69 for 6 and placed his side on the doorstep of a victory on the third day of the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal in Bengaluru on Friday. Chasing an improbable 300 to win, East now need 231 runs more with four wickets remaining. Along with Saurabh, the East Zone should be thankful to their batters too for this position of strength. In the second innings, they made 239 all out to construct an overall lead of 299 runs.

Starting from their overnight 64 for no loss, Central moved ahead in the match through openers Himanshu Mantri and Vivek Singh.

Mantri (68, 153 balls, 7x4) and Vivek (56, 120 balls, 4x4, 2x6) milked 124 runs for the opening wicket, giving a clear edge to their side.

They departed in quick succession and the Central could not sustain the steam for the rest of the innings.

However, cameos by Saransh Jain (32) and Shubam Sharma (23) ensured that Central would not lose the momentum given by the openers.

East failed to take the cue from Central batting, though.

Their batting malfunctioned for the second time in the match against left-arm spinner Saurabh. Riyan Parag was batting on 6 at close but the target seems too tall for a one-man effort.

North Zone move closer to victory

North Zone hurtled ruthlessly towards a crushing win over North East Zone while rattling up 259 for 6 in their second innings, pathway to their giant 665-run lead on the third day of the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal. Once that strong foundation was set, the North bowlers made optimum use of it to reduce North East to 58 for 3 at close. NE trail by 607 runs.

But before their batsmen came into the party for the second time in the match, North bowlers led by Siddarth Kaul bundled