West Zone force a draw

SURAT, JANUARY 21: South Zone failed to force an outright victory as West Zone top order batted defiantly to end the Duleep Trophy tie in ...

SURAT, JANUARY 21: South Zone failed to force an outright victory as West Zone top order batted defiantly to end the Duleep Trophy tie in a draw at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium.

West, who had six points before this match, finished with 9 from three matches, while South, who had three before, finished with 8 in their kitty from two matches.Skipper Mongia resumed at his overnight 21 with Hrishikesh Kanitkar coming in for Connor Williams, as stumps were drawn on Saturday after the latter was out in the last over, and together they added exactly 50 runs for the second wicket before Kanitkar was caught at short leg by Hemang Badani off Sunil Joshi for 23.

Mongia then added another 54 runs with his Vadodara mate Jacob Martin. The junior partner played more possitively than in his first inings knock of 89, scoring 47 in 65 balls with eight hits to the fence, before he was lapped up by wicketkeeper Tilak Naydu off Doda Ganesh. Vinod Kambli was his belligerent self, straight away lofting Venkatpati Raju to the long off fence for a boundary in the first over he faced. And when off-spinner Ashish Kapoor was brought in from the same end in the next over for the left-hander he was given the same treatment.

Kambli did not spare Ganesh either, pulling him to the square-leg fence and delicately turning another one to the fine leg fence for two boundaries in one over. And Sunil Joshi too got the stick, being carted over the sightscreen twice.

SCOREBOARD

West Zone 1st innings: 376
South Zone 1st innings: 595 for 4 dec.

West Zone 2nd innings: Connor Williams c Sriram b Kapoor 43 90m, 68b, 6215;4, Nayan Mongia b Joshi 60 291m, 187b, 10215;4, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Badani b Joshi 23 71m, 54b, 3215;4, Jacob Martin c Naydu b Ganesh 47 64m, 65b, 8215;4, Vinod Kambli c S Ramesh b Joshi 66 84m, 63b, 12215;4, 2215;6, Abhijit Kale c Dravid b Raju 52 75m, 55b, 9215;4, Wasim Jaffer not out 17 101m, 96b, 2215;4, Sairaj Bahutule not out 9 47m, 44b, 1215;4, Extras: 13 b-5, nb-87.
Total: 330 for 6 in 104 overs.Fall of wickets:1-64 Williams, 2-114 Kanitkar, 3-168 Martin, 4-222 Mongia, 5-264 Kambli, 6-310 Kale.

Bowling: Doda Ganesh 17-2-73-1, S Shahabuddin 4-0-17-0, Ashish Kapoor 26-3-91-1, Venkatpati Raju 23-8-51-1, Sunil Joshi 21-6-62-3, S Sriram 7-3-25-0, Sadgoppan Ramesh 4-2-3-0, Hemang Badani 2-1-3-0.