Hyderabad, Jan 29: South Zone beat Central Zone by a huge margin of 552 runs to win a berth in the Duleep Trophy final beginning on February 2, 2011.
Central Zone were bundled out for 217 on the last day of the semi-final here at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium. Amit Mishra added just eight runs to his overnight score while Naman Ojha went on to make 55 runs. Ashok Menaria was the highest scorer for Central Zone in the second innings with 63 runs to his credit.
Leading by 769 runs, South Zone were the favourites to reach the final. They picked up eight wickets for just 144 runs to end the match before Lunch. Karnataka pacer Vinay Kumar claimed a four-for while Pragyan Ojha took three wickets in the second innings.
South Zone were the superior team throughout the match with some brilliant batting and bowling performances. Their domination started with Manish Pandey’s double century reiterated by Abhinav Mukund who scored a century in both innings. The bowlers were not be left behind - Vinay Kumar, Pragyan Ojha and S Aravind troubled the opposition and got wickets consistently in both innings.
After losing to West Zone by three wickets in Hyderabad last season, South Zone now get another chance to claim the Duleep Trophy at Vizag.
Brief score:
Central Zone: 1st innings, 178 all out and 2ndinnings (AL Menaria 63, NV Ojha 55, R Vinay Kumar 4/36, PP Ojha 3/110)
South Zone: 1stinnings 443 all out and 2ndinnings 504/7
Central Zone team: HH Kanitkar (c), A Chopra, MD Mishra, NV Ojha (wk), M Kaif, AL Menaria, RP Singh, U Yadav, D Bundela, AA Wakhare, Pankaj Singh
South Zone: A Mukund, RV Uthappa, S Badrinath (c), MK Pandey, KD Karthik, Amit Verma, CM Gautam (wk), R Vinay Kumar, A Mithun, PP Ojha, S Aravind
