South Zone and Karnataka pacer Vidavath Kaverappa continued his impressive run in domestic cricket as West Zone got on the mat in the Duleep Trophy final in Bengaluru. The South Zone bowlers needed only 213 runs on the board and Kaverappa led the response with the ball as the Hanuma Vihari-led side managed to post a formidable total. Prithvi Shaw Seven West Zone wickets have fallen at stumps on the second day.
After skipper Priyank Panchal was dismissed cheaply, Shaw and wicketkeeper Harvik Desai put on a 70-run partnership, and it looked like West Zone would easily cross South Zone’s score. However, everything turned bleak for West Zone as the partnership broke due to Kaverappa. After Desai’s dismissal, the West Zone team fell to nine wickets when Prithvi Shaw was dismissed by Vishak Vijayakumar.
And then came the real storm. Kavarappa single-handedly destroyed Sarfaraz Khan’s trio. Cheteshwar Pujara And all three Suryakumar Yadav got out cheaply. Sarfaraz Khan, who is still waiting for his first Test call-up, registered his second zero and third single-digit scores in the Duleep Trophy, while Surya and Pujara, the two who won Tests after the World Test Championship (WTC), Was dropped from the team. The final defeats were dismissed on single-digit scores of 9 and 8, respectively.
All three haven’t helped their cause with their performances in the two matches so far and even though Pujara scored a century in the second innings of the semi-final, he doesn’t look confident of his game.
Surya hit a six off his very first ball as the fielder misjudged a simple catch near the boundary, but could not continue for long. West Zone are in deep trouble at 129/7 having lost their last six wickets for just 32 runs. The Panchal-led side is still 84 runs short of the South Zone score and will need a stellar effort from the likes of Atiyut Sheth and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja to get closer to 213.