Sudip Kumar Gharami: Ishan Kishan’s stroke-filled unbeaten knock of 39 after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s fiery 43 helped East Zone beat Central Zone and march into the final of the Duleep Trophy on Tuesday.Sooryavanshi dazzled his way to a 43-ball 40, while Kishan carried the innings with a 41-ball 39 as East chased down the 159-run target with four wickets in hand to knock the defending champions out of the event.
The East side were reeling in the chase as Harsh Dubey took four wickets, while Yash Thakur and Saransh Jain also struck to pile the pressure on the Ishan-led team. However, the skipper held cool and helped the team cross the line, with Mohammed Shami also going unbeaten on eight.
Coming into Day 3 of the semifinal, the East bowlers did the job. Central were in trouble at 45/3 at the start of the third day, and the East bowlers kept chipping away as Mukesh Kumar ended with a four-wicket haul, while Shami also scalped three wickets in another impressive performance by the Indian internationals.
Abhijit K. Sarkar struck first on Day 3 when he got nightwatchman Aryan Pandey before Shami and Mukesh got Yash Rathod and Aman Mokhade. The East bowlers continued their work as Central were reeling at 97/8 before a fight came from Harsh Dubey and Arshad Khan, who put 43 for the ninth wicket. But their resistance did not last long as Central were bowled out for 158 to go with the 266 they made in the first innings.
East came out to bat to chase the meagre total. Sooryavanshi shelved his aggressive intent but cut loose later as he moved to 43 with three fours and a six off Yash. But he was dismissed in the same 14th over when Patidar took a brilliant diagonal-running catch from mid-on.
In the first innings, Central had made 266 as Rinku Singh made a valiant 60. East replied with 92 from Sooryavanshi and 69 from Abhimanyu Easwaran as the two sides were tied on 266. East did the job with the ball in the second innings as the defending champions had no answer to it.
Article Source: IANS
