Had North Zone landed with their full-strength side,Rahul Dewan wouldnt even have found a place in the squad. On Friday,the opener fired 81 for the defending champions,but three quick wickets saw them on the backfoot against South in their Duleep Trophy semi-final. Chasing a huge score of 548,North still needed 376 runs at the end of the day with two Punjab boys,Uday Kaul (16) and Sunny Sohal (19),at the crease. Dewan and Dhawan hadnt wasted any time in getting their willows adjusted to the pace. They compiled 82 runs from 18 overs and batted fearlessly before Dhawan (37) gave a simple catch to Abhinav Mukund at silly point off R Ashwin. A miss-field by South skipper S Badrinath,saw Dewan running for his third run,but he fell short of the crease. His innings of 132 balls had 14 fours. Chopra (17) tried to drive on the leg-side but misjudged and was stumped by Dinesh Karthik off M Suresh. Earlier,resuming at 442,the South tailenders played a patient innings. Overnight batsmen,Arjun Yadav,who was batting on 43,made 70 while M Suresh struck 17. Vinay Kumar (29) and L Balaji continued to frustrate North bowlers and batted till lunch,but soon Vinay departed,caught at slip by Shikhar Dhawan.
