South Zone put one foot in semis of Duleep Trophy

Former champions South Zone have virtually qualified for semi-finals after reducing West Zone to 156 for 6 in on the penultimate day of their four-day Duleep Trophy match in Chennai on Saturday.

South captain Vinay Kumar declared their innings at 600 for nine in 171.1 overs. Overnight batsman Malolan Rangarajan remained unbeaten at 58.

While Rakesh Dhruv (3/183) was the highest wicket-taker for West, Murtuza Vahora took 2 for 41.

In reply, West made a poor start as skipper Wasim Jaffer (11) made an early exit as he was caught by Vinay Kumar off Malolan.

Aditya Waghmode and Ankit Bawne steadied the innings but the former was dismissed by part-time spinner Abhinav Mukund.

Aknit, who remained unbeaten on 62, was the lone batsman who put up resistance as others lost their wickets rather cheaply.

Manpreet Juneja was clean bowled by Abhinav for a duck.

Yusuf Pathan gave away his wicket playing an atrocious shot off Aushik.

Then, Malolan dismissed both Hiken Shah (15) and Rohit Motwani (0), trapping them in front of the wicket.