West, Central share honours

CHENNAI, Dec 21: Nobody wanted to take the Duleep Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in zonal cricket, back home. That was the sad truth that ...

CHENNAI, Dec 21: Nobody wanted to take the Duleep Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in zonal cricket, back home. That was the sad truth that emerged after five days of cricket, rather non cricket, at the MAC Stadium. On Sunday, well after the completion of prize distribution function and posing happily for the photographs, the players, packed in mini buses, set off to their hotels but without the fabulous trophy which was left like an orphan on the asphalt road at the M J Gopalan gate.

There was no room for the weighty silver in the buses. Perhaps, the players thought it as some kind of a millstone that they do not want to hang around their necks. Such is the importance and respect our domestic players give for cups and conventions. It is merely a ritual for them as well as for the BCCI which does not believe in giving miniature cups as memorabilia.

For the record, the Duleep Trophy was shared with West Zone winning the custodial rights for the first six months when stand-in skipper Amol Muzumdar called the coin correctly. Defending champion Central Zone, obviously, will take it after six months.

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West carried from where they left on the first day, batting on till tea time and declaring the score on 384 for 7. Any interest of Central Zone winning by the quotient rule was snuffed out by the delayed declaration. Central Zone got just 22 overs which is eight short of the required number of overs for calculation.

Central Zone lost five wickets but one should not read too much into it. For West made a mockery of the whole exercise and Central wanted to do their bit by sending bowlers ahead of batsmen after Gagan Khoda and Jyoti Shetty were packed off quickly.

Ajit Agarkar showed his batting prowess. The youngster is not attractive like Muzumdar but was effective when West Zone looked hopeless at one stage. Agarkar defended dourly while others like Mhambrey (30, 3×6) and Nilesh Kulkarni cut loose. When his turn to bowl came, the 5ft-6inch pocket dynamite let go steamy ones at the batsmen.

Agarkar, belaying his skinny-bonny frame, was quite nippy off the wicket and harried the batsmen. Opener Gagan Khoda was packed off as he shouldered-arm to an in-cutter and Agarkar followed it up by clean bowling Zakir Hussain. If the Indian selectors are keen on building a team for the next World Cup, here is the guy — a bits and pieces cricketer, competent to deliver the goods.

SCOREBOARD

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West Zone (1st innings) (overnight 196-4): Wasim Jaffer b Zakir 40, Nayan Mongia c Khurasiya b Zakir 10, Amol Muzumdar run out 43, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c J Yadav b Parida 8, Jacob Martin c Mudgal b Parida 72, Jatin Paranjpe c Mudgal b Karthik 55, Ajit Agarkar not out 56, Paras Mhambrey st Mudgal b Hirwani 30, Nilesh Kulkarni not out 34; Extras: (b6, lb4, w2, nb24) 36. Total: (for 7 wickets) 384.

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-104, 3-107, 4-127, 5-252, 6-254, 7-310.

Bowling: Pandey 27-4-77-1, Hussain 18-1-48-2, Karthik 37-13-64-1, Hirwani 37-7-101-1, Parida 30-5-84-1.

Central Zone (1st innings): Jyoti Yadav c Martin b Mhambrey 2, Gagan Khoda b Agarkar 3, Murali b Kulkarni 6, Hussain b Agarkar 2, Pandey b Kulkarni 4, Rizwan Shamshad not out 11, Abbas Ali not out 2; Extras: (b1, nb5) 6. Total: (for five wickets in 22 overs) 36.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-8, 3-11, 4-22, 5-23.

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Bowling: Mhambrey 5-0-6-1, Agarkar 8-1-22-2, Kulkarni 6-4-4-2, Mehta 3-2-3-0

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