Having taken a sizable lead that more or less put them in the semifinals, North Zone batsmen ground East Zone bowlers into submission as Ayush Badoni scored a double century in the Duleep Trophy quarter-finals on Sunday.
Resuming the day on 388/2, North showed no intention of giving East Zone a chase as they feasted on an already tired attack that missed Mohammed Shami. The veteran pacer, playing his first first-class match since November, did not bowl on the final day. Having sent down 11 overs in the second innings, Shami spent the day in the pavilion as a precautionary measure after rolling over his toe on Day 3. Fellow pacer Mukesh Kumar too didn’t bowl in the second innings because of a thigh niggle.
In their absence, East Zone were sent on a leather hunt. North Zone skipper Ankit Kumar, unbeaten on 168 overnight, couldn’t get to a double century as he fell for 198. But Badoni, resuming the day at 56, showed how much he has developed in the red-ball format. Having tallied 499 runs in the last Ranji season, the Delhi batsman was fluent as he hit 13 boundaries and three sixes in his 223-ball stay for an unbeaten 204 – his second double century in first-class cricket. After stitching a 150-run partnership with Ankit, he combined with Haryana’s Nishant Sindhu (68, 91b, 2×4, 5×6) for a 157-run stand for the fourth wicket to take the lead past 700. North finished with an overall lead of 833 runs.
Auqib Nabi, who took five wickets, including a hat-trick in East Zone’s first innings, was adjudged man of the match.
So, why did North Zone decide to bat on despite having a chance to press for an outright victory?
“If we wanted, we could have gone for the result because we had the upper hand. But we didn’t try because we were in the lead in the first innings. We batted very well in the first innings and then bowled well,” said Ankit.
“We also wanted to keep Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as fresh as possible (ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup.) But we made some wrong decisions while batting in the first innings. Otherwise, we could have dominated even more.”
North Zone will face South Zone in the semifinals.
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North-East hold on for a draw
In the other quarterfinal, Central Zone’s efforts to make the semifinals with an outright win was thwarted by a spirited effort by North-East Zone. Having taken a 347-run lead in the first innings, Central Zone declared at their overnight score of 331/7, setting North East a 679-run target.
And just like the first innings, North-East batsmen made Central work hard for their wickets. Batting with caution all through the day, wicketkeeper-batter Jehu Anderson (64 off 96 balls) and skipper Rongsen Jonathan (60 off 97 balls) scored fighting half-centuries to frustrate the Central bowlers, including Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed and Kuldeep Yadav. The trio went wicketless in the second innings.
Brief scores: North Zone 405 & 658/4d (Ayush Badoni 204*, Ankit Kumar 198) drew with East Zone 230. Central Zone 532/4d & 331/7d drew with North-East Zone 185 & 200/6 (Jehu Anderson 64, Rongsen Jonathan 60).
