West Zone And South Zone To Square Off In Duleep Trophy Final

The final of Duleep Trophy 2023 will take place between South Zone and West Zone on Wednesday after West Zone had a draw with Central Zone and qualified on basis of their first innings lead and South Zone beat North Zone by two wickets during Saturday's semifinals. In the first semifinal, West Zone took on Central Zone. Electing to bat first, West Zone was bundled out for 220 in 92.5 overs.

While stars including Cheteshwar Pujara (28), Suryakumar Yadav (7) and Sarfaraz Khan (0) crumbled under the initial pace assault of Central Zone and sunk to 65/5, knocks from Atit Sheth (74 in 129 balls) and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (39 in 91 balls) helped WZ reach a decent total.

Shivam Mavi (6/44) was the pick of the bowlers for CZ. Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur and Saurabh Kumar also got a wicket each.

In their first innings, CZ was bundled out for just 128 runs. Knocks from Rinku Singh (48 in 69 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (46 in 55 balls), the two stars of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 stars, helped CZ save their faces. Arzan Nagwaswalla (5/74) and Atit Sheth (3/27) were key reasons why West Zone got a 98-run first innings lead.

In their second innings, WZ put on a better performance and was bundled out for 297 runs. Pujara (133 in 278 balls) hit his 60th first-class cricket century while Suryakumar (52 in 58 balls) also shined with the bat.

Saransh Jain (4/56) and Saurabh Kumar (4/84) were impressive with the ball for CZ. But WZ took a 389-run lead, setting a 390-run target for their opponents.

Chasing 390, CZ ended the match at 128/4, with Amandeep Khare (27*) and Upendra Yadav (18*) unbeaten. Rinku Singh (40 in 30 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (25) also played decent knocks. Arzan Nagwaswalla (1/21) was the pick of the bowlers for WZ. The