East Zone suffered a massive defeat by an innings and 118 runs against South Zone in the second semi-final of the Duleep Trophy 2014-15 at Rohtak. Medium-fast bowling all-rounder Stuart Binny took seven wickets in the match to help dismiss East for 62 after being forced to follow-on following their 84 in the first innings.
Losing the toss and put in to bat first, South Zone scored 264 in the first innings thanks to a brilliant knock of 120 by Robin Uthappa. South Zone were off to a slow and composed start as they managed only 45 in the first 28 overs before the first breakthrough and managed to get 63 for the loss of one by Lunch on the opening day. However, they increased their scoring rate a bit in the post lunch session and scored 155 for the loss of two by Tea. After the lunch, it was Robin Uthappa who eventually got to his hundred after facing 175 balls with the score reading 185 for 2. However, he was dismissed for 120 after 11 overs when the score was 220 and it after this when the crumbling for the East Zone occurred as they lost wickets in quick succession and from 220 for 4, they were all of a sudden down to 230 for 7 and eventually ended up getting bowled out for 264 on the next day.
What was expected to be an interesting match from East Zone’s point of view started to fade as they lost the first wicket for just 25 after 15 overs when the lunch followed. But the post lunch session turned out to be nightmare for the East Zone batsmen as they crumbled like a pile of cards to Binnny’s excellence and were down to 34/6 out of nowhere and eventually ended up getting bowled out for 84 with Saurabh Tiwary being the highest scorer for just 17.
After being imposed a follow-on, East Zone continues their 2nd innings in the similar fashion and the nightmare continued as the were two down for just nine after six overs and the score read 18 for four after eight overs, thanks to some brilliant bowling by Binny and HS Sarath and ended the day on 30 for four. The start of day three was not too impressive as they were down 49 for six after just five overs of play. The seventh wicket fell on 62 which also marked the end of the East Zone innings as that is where the team got bowled out in some ridiculous fashion and run-outs as well, thus handing South Zone a comfortable innings victory and 118 runs and earning them a berth in the finals where they are due to face the winner between Central Zone and North Zone, the second semi-final being held in Mohali.
Brief scores:
South Zone 264 (Robin Uthappa 120; Laxmi Ratan Shukla 4 for 40) beat Central Zone 84 (Saurabh Tiwary 17, Rana Datta 17; Stuart Binny 4 for 24, Pragyan Ojha 3 for 9) and 62 (Laxmi Ratan Shukla 18; HS Sharath 4 for 27, Stuart Binny 3 for 23) by an innings and 118 runs.
(Ayush Gupta is a reporter at CricketCountry. A passionate supporter of Manchester United, he idolises Roger Federer)
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