South Zone dominated proceedings against North Zone on the opening day of semi-final 2 of the Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru. Qamran Iqbal fought hard and long for his 76, but he did not get enough support as North Zone were bundled out for 195 at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence Ground 2.
Vidhwath Kaverappa emerged as the best bowler for South Zone. The right-arm pacer, after an expensive start in his first spell, came back strongly to claim a four-wicket haul. South Zone lost a couple of wickets and ended the day at 40/2.
North Zone’s decision to bat first did not transpire to be a great one as they were bundled out for 195 within just 60 overs.
Only Qamran stood out for North Zone, with wickets continuing to tumble at the other end. There were only two fifty-plus partnerships, and Qamran was involved in both. Lacking support at the other end, he was forced to manufacture a hook shot and gloved it straight to the wicketkeeper. A hundred was there for the taking, and it could have done him a world of good. But he was running out of partners, which forced him into a needless stroke. The tall right-handed batter will learn from the experience, but before getting out, he gave a good account of himself.
At the start, he survived the testing new-ball spells of Kaverappa and MD Nidheesh. The latter troubled Qamran with deliveries that moved away from him. The two players were involved in a duel. After drawing the outside edge of Qamran’s bat on a couple of occasions, Nidheesh shifted to a short-ball ploy, which did not work for the Kerala-based pacer.
After winning the battle against Nidheesh, the task was to negotiate Tanay Thyagarajan and Shreyas Gopal. Qamran was watchful against spin, scoring only one boundary in his innings against the spinners. A lot of dot balls came while he faced the spinners. Whenever the pacers came on, he found the boundary to release the pressure. Qamran showed good composure and batted really well.
Apart from him, only Ayush Doesja and captain Kanhaiya Wadhawan went past the 20-run mark in the first innings.
South Zone’s bowlers kept chipping away with wickets. Four wickets fell in the first session, two to pace and two to spin. Of all the South Zone bowlers, only Kaverappa went wicketless in the first session. In fact, he leaked runs at more than five runs per over in his first spell. In the second session, Kaverappa came back with a different strategy and renewed energy. The Karnataka pacer bent his back and stole the show with a hostile spell, taking four wickets in his eight-over second spell.
When South Zone batted, Anshul Kamboj was relentless in his first spell and got the wicket of Ricky Bhui, who faced 39 deliveries for his five runs.
Narayan Jagadeesan looked fluent from the start, finding boundaries at regular intervals while negotiating the opening spells of Anshul and Arshdeep Singh. Introduced as the first-change bowler, Gurnoor Brar found Shaik Rasheed in front of the stumps in his fifth over.
North Zone coaches Ajay Sharma and Sarandeep Singh came under fire for dropping Sanat Sangwan, the third-highest run-getter of last Ranji season, from the playing XI for the quarter-final against West Zone. After the backlash, Sangwan was included in the team. Opening the batting, the young left-hander could only survive for 19 deliveries, scoring just 10 runs before giving a return catch to Nidheesh.
Brief Scores: North Zone 195 all-out (Qamran Iqbal 76; Vidhwath Kaverappa 4/66) vs South Zone 40/2 (Narayan Jagadeesan 34 not out; Anshul Kamboj 1/9) at stumps, Day 1.
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