New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS) Eyes will be on teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi once again when he takes the field in the Duleep Trophy semifinal for East Zone against Rajat Patidar’s defending champions, Central Zone, while South Zone will face North Zone in the other semifinal. Both matches are set for Sunday.
East Zone won their quarter-final against North East Zone, as all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed starred with both bat and ball to lead the side to an innings-and-210-run win. Shahbaz (167) forged a strong 150-run partnership with the other centurion, Sudip Kumar Gharami (146), to power the Ishan Kishan-led side to a daunting 467. Medium-pacer Abhijit K Sarkar and Shahbaz then plotted the downfall of the North East side, with Abhijit taking 5-20 and Shahbaz 3-20 as they bowled Rongsen Jonathan’s team out for 111 and enforced a follow-on.
North East Zone again faced the brunt of East Zone’s bowlers and were bowled out for 146 in the follow-on, with no one scoring a half-century. Ankulul Roy starred with a five-wicket haul, while Sooryavanshi took two wickets in a surprise move. East Zone won by an innings and 210 runs.
However, a much tougher test will await them in the semi-final, when they will face the defending champions at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1. Central Zone have the much stronger personnel, with Patidar leading the way and the likes of Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur and Saransh Jain posing a significant threat. Saransh made his India debut in Colombo against Sri Lanka and will be gunning for success in the domestic circuit.
Meanwhile, North Zone, who defeated West Zone in a close quarter-final, will face Tilak Varma’s South Zone. Kanhaiya Wadhawan’s North Zone defeated the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led West Zone by 52 runs, as Abid Mushtaq and Nishant Sindhu shared six wickets to deny West a chase of 286 on the final day of the quarter-final. North had scored 251 in the first innings after a late-order 60 from Anshul Kamboj, while Mushtaq took a five-for in the first innings, as his team took a 44-run lead.
North did enough in the second innings too, as Ayush Badoni hit 50 and Sindhu made 44, taking the team to 222. Mushtaq stood tall once again with the ball, taking 4-60 in the second innings, while Sindhu took 2-59 in a 52-run win.
South Zone will pose a significant threat to North’s title hopes. The side is led by India T20I vice-captain Varma, while the likes of Smaran Ravichandran, Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal and Narayan Jagadeesan add strength to the side.
When: Sunday, August 30, 9:30 AM IST
Where: BCCI CoE Ground 1 and BCCI CoE Ground 2
Where to watch: The match will be streamed live on the JioHotstar app and website.
Squads
East Zone Squad: Ishan Kishan (Captain & Wicketkeeper) (Jharkhand), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (Vice-Captain) (Bihar), Denish Das (Assam), Abhimanyu Easwaran (Bengal), Sudip Kumar Gharami (Bengal), Shahbaz Ahmed (Bengal), Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal (Bengal), Mohd Shami (Bengal), Mukesh Kumar (Bengal), Kumar Kushagra (Wicketkeeper) (Jharkhand), Shikhar Mohan (Jharkhand), Anukul Roy (Jharkhand), Virat Singh (Jharkhand), Subhranshu Senapati (Odisha), Abhijit Sarkar (Tripura).
Central Zone Squad: Rajat Patidar (Captain) (Madhya Pradesh), Rinku Singh (Vice-captain) (Uttar Pradesh), Ayush Pandey (Chhattisgarh), Saransh Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Aryan Pandey (Madhya Pradesh), Arshad Khan (Madhya Pradesh), Kunal Singh Rathod (Wicketkeeper) (Rajasthan), Aryan Juyal (Wicketkeeper) (Uttar Pradesh), Zeeshan Ansari (Uttar Pradesh), Kunal Chandela (Uttarakhand), Aman Mokhade (Vidarbha), Yash Rathod (Vidarbha), Harsh Dubey (Vidarbha), Yash Thakur (Vidarbha), Nachiket Bhute (Vidarbha).
North Zone Squad: Kanhaiya Wadhawan (Captain & Wicketkeeper) (Jammu & Kashmir), Ayush Badoni (Vice-captain) (Delhi), Sanat Sangwan (Delhi), Yash Dhull (Delhi), Ayush Doseja (Delhi), Nishant Sindhu (Haryana), Anshul Kamboj (Haryana), Nikhil Kashyap (Haryana), Qamran Iqbal (Jammu & Kashmir), Abdul Samad (Jammu & Kashmir), Abid Mushtaq (Jammu & Kashmir), Sunil Kumar (Jammu & Kashmir), Yudhvir Singh (Jammu & Kashmir), Arshdeep Singh (Punjab), Arjun Sharma (Services). *Sahil Lotra has replaced Yudhvir Singh in the squad
South Zone Squad: Tilak Varma (Capain) (Hyderabad), Ricky Bhui (Vice-captain & Wicketkeeper) (Andhra), SK Rasheed (Andhra), K Sai Teja (Andhra), T Vijay (Andhra), Abhinav Tejrana (Goa), K Himateja (Hyderabad), T Thyagarajan (Hyderabad), R Smaran (Karnataka), Karun Nair (Karnataka), Shreyas Gopal (Karnataka), V Kaverappa (Karnataka), MD Nidheesh (Kerala), N Jagadeesan (Wicketkeeper) (Tamil Nadu), Aman Khan (Pondicherry).
–IANS
vm/vi