Chennai, Oct 9: The Airtel Duleep Trophy quarter-final match between North Zone and West Zone ended in a draw on day four, with the former walking away with the first innings honors that ensured a passage to the semi-final stage.
West Zone, who were kept on the field for a major part of the first two days as North Zone amassed 484 runs in the first innings, fared better in their second outing with the ball. This time around, they picked up wickets regularly and restricted North Zone to 208 for seven when Shikhar Dhawan, the North Zone captain, decided to call time on his innings. Like in the first innings, it was yet again the trio of Dhawan, Rahul Dewan and Paras Dogra who shone with the bat in the second innings. While Dhawan made 50 before getting stumped off Kamlesh Makvana’s bowling, Dewan made 45 and Dogra remained unbeaten on 36.
For West Zone, Kamlesh Makvana picked up his second five-wicket haul of the match to follow up his five for 140 in the first innings; young Harmeet Singh picked up the other two wickets.
In their second innings, West Zone had crawled to 69 for two off 29 overs when both captains decided to concede a draw. Ajinkya Rahane was unbeaten on 15, while his skipper Cheteshwar Pujara remained not out 10. The spin duo of Amit Mishra and Vikas Mishra shared the wickets between them.
Brief Scores:
North Zone 1st Innings: 484 in 174.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 101, Rahul Dewan 65, Paras Dogra 77, Kamlesh Makvana 5-140)
West Zone 1st Innings: 164 in 70.4 overs (Parthiv Patel 51, Bhushan Chauhan 35, Ishant Sharma 4-29, Amit Mishra 3-41)
North Zone 2nd Innings: 208-7 declared in 67.0 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 50, Rahul Dewan 45, Paras Dogra 36*, Kamlesh Makvana 5-80)
West Zone 2nd Innings: 69-2 in 29.0 overs
