Last-wicket pair ends West fightback; North lift Trophy

CALCUTTA, DECEMBER 21: The plot was running smooth for North Zone but skipper Vikram Rathore did not believe in premature celebrations. No...

CALCUTTA, DECEMBER 21: The plot was running smooth for North Zone but skipper Vikram Rathore did not believe in premature celebrations. Nothing else than a Herculean task would have helped West Zone turn the tables on their opponents on the fifth and final day of the Duleep Trophy final at the Eden Garden.

But his team lost five wickets in the morning. And barely 10 minutes after lunch, North No 11 Robin Singh (Jr) was walking into the middle to avert a huge crisis. Robin helped Pankaj Dharmani add 65 runs for the last wicket and in the process consumed 62 minutes and 13.4 overs. When Dharmani’s heroics ended, seven runs short of a fifth first-class century this season, North had set West a target of 350 in a minimum of 39 overs.

Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan pitched the ball up and swung the ball. Virender Sehwag, Rajeev Nayyar and Nikhil Chopra were snapped up byy the behind-the-wicket cordon and Navdip Singh was too late in bringing his bat down. The other seamer Paras Mhambrey had taken care ofReetinder Sodhi first thing in the morning. West Zone sniffed a miracle.

Story continues below this ad

Had West latched on to the three chances that Dharmani gave — Siddique dropped him off his own bowling and Amol Muzumdar let him off twice in the slips things may have been different. Dharmani capitalised to become the first batsman to cross 1000 runs in first class cricket this season. He was 41 in North’s 183 for nine when Robin (Jr) walked in. He first got to his half-century and then lashed out at the West bowling taking his own score to 93 and the team total to 248.

With little to lose, West collapsed in the run chaseand were 65-5 when umpires VK Ramaswamy and I Sivaram effected an early closure due to bad light.

North were crowned champions by virtue of the first innings lead. North, who last won in ’95-96, are now even with West as far as title wins are concerned — 14 each.

SCOREBOARD
North Zone (1st innings) 468
West Zone (1st innings) 367
North Zone (2nd innings)Ashu Dani lbw Mhambrey 4
VikramRathore c & b Kulkarni 41
RS Sodhi c Muzumdar b Mhambrey 47
P Dharmani c Khan b Mhambrey 93
V Sehwag c Jaffer b Zaheer 9
Rajiv Nayyar c Kulkarni b Zaheer 7
Vijay Dahiya lbw Kulkarni 14
Nikhil Chopra c Patel b Zaheer 3
Navdip Singh lbw Zaheer 0
Amit Bhandari b Kulkarni 5
Robin Singh (jr) not out 9
Extras (b 4, lb 6, nb 6) 16
Total (all out in 73.5 overs) 248
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-73, 3-106, 4-133, 5-149, 6-170, 7-175, 8-177, 9-183
Bowling:Mhambrey 18.5-5-48-3, Zaheer 21-2-76-4, Siddique 13-2-60-0, Kulkarni 20-7-42-3, Kambli 1-0-12-0
West Zone (2nd innings)
I Siddique c Dahiya b Bhandari 0
W Jaffer c Sodhi b Bhandari 7
A Kale c sub (Minhas) b Navdip 20
Zaheer Khan c Dahiya b Bhandari 19
Connor William not out 7
Pratik Patel c sub (Mongia) b Navdip 9
Amol Muzumdar not out 0
Extras (nb 2) 2.
Total (for 5 wkts, in 22 overs) 64
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-9, 3-47, 4-48, 5-60
Bowling:Bhandari 5-1-23-3, Sodhi2-0-21-0, Navdip 9-8-4-2, Sehwag 6-1-16-0