East enters Duleep semis with five-wkt win

An all-round performance by East Zone helped them beat West by five wickets to make it to the semi-final of the Duleep Trophy on Monday. East will meet North Zone in the semi-final scheduled to be played in Delhi from February 4.

After a batting collapse saw West lose five wickets for 21 runs,East were left to chase a target of 173,which they successfully did in 56.3 overs despite a few hiccups. Having conceded the first innings lead,West who were leading by 102 runs at the end of third day needed to put up a decent total in order to enforce an outright victory.

Kaustubh Pawar (37,80 balls,6×4) and Abhishek Nayar (58,59 balls,4×4,3×6) started in right earnest with the latter starting to attack the East bowlers. Their sixth-wicket partnership produced 69 runs before the slide started.

East,in their chase were reduced to 121 for five. It was left-arm spinner Darekar (5/87) who got all the wickets. But an unbroken 52-run stand between Biplab Samantray and Anushtup Majumdar clinched the issue.

Brief scores: West Zone 314 & 201 (A Nayar 58,A Dinda 3/82,A Nechim 3/31). East Zone 343 & 173/5 (N Behera 34,A Majumdar 27 n o).