Duleep Trophy Final: Gurjapneet Singh stops Yash Rathod’s double hundred & Ankit Sharma’s hard work pays off

Central Zone had started the day at 384/5 with Yash Rathod and Saransh Jain batting on 137 and 47, respectively.

Central Zone remains on the front foot in the Duleep Trophy final. After the third day’s play, South Zone trail by 233 runs and have already lost two wickets. Having ended the second day with a 235-run lead, Central Zone were in the driver’s seat. Even a 1-run lead is substantial if the match gets drawn, and from that perspective, they had already won.

But Yash Rathod and Saransh Jain had other ideas. The duo had already stitched a partnership of 118, but they just didn’t want to stop. Saransh went to score a fine fifty, but a false reverse sweep brought an end to his stay in the middle. Gritty 69 runs. The South Zone wasn’t exactly pleased, as by now the lead was 303.

Yash Rathod misses out on maiden double hundred

Ankit Kumar was happy, though. He had bowled the most overs but hadn’t been among the wickets. But the torment continued as Deepak Chahar joined hands with Rathod to stitch another 50-run stand and take the score to 500. Gurjapneet Singh, who had been South Zone’s best bowler, bowled an absolute peach of a delivery to end Rathod’s vigil.

The left-handed batter fell just 6 runs short of his first double hundred in first-class cricket but it wasn’t to be. Ankit took over from there, cleaning up the tail for just 11 runs as both he and Gurjapneet bagged four-wicket hauls.

Tanmay Agarwal and Mohit Kale started well in response. The lead of 352 would have been daunting, but they batted well. Saransh, who took a 5-wicket haul in the first innings and scored a fifty, also took the first wicket by trapping Kale in front of the wicket in the 16th over.

A couple of overs later, Tanmay was bowled by Kuldeep Sen. The trail was still 276, and South Zone were looking at an innings defeat. Luckily, Smaran Ravichandran and Ricky Bhui played out the remaining overs (14.5), but on-field umpire Jayaraman Madanagopal brought out the light meter and ended the day half an hour before time.

Brief Score: South Zone (149/10) & (129/2) vs Central Zone (511/10) – South Zone trail by 233 runs