\n<\/p>\n
Duleep Trophy Semifinals: South Zone Shines, Central Zone Fights Back<\/strong><\/p>\n The second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinals at the BCCI Centre of Excellence was all about runs, as South Zone built a solid first-innings total against North Zone, while Central Zone aimed to chase down West Zone\u2019s hefty total of 438.<\/p>\n For South Zone, Narayan Jagadeesan stood out<\/strong>, scoring an impressive 197 runs. The opener played an essential role throughout the innings, hitting boundaries and keeping the scoreboard moving. Although he missed out on a double century by just three runs, his innings helped South Zone post a significant 536 runs. He received support from Ricky Bhui and Tanay Thyagarajan, who both contributed valuable half-centuries, making it tough for the bowlers from North Zone.<\/p>\n North Zone’s bowling attack faced challenges, as the fast bowlers struggled to find their groove. It was spinner Nishant Sindhu who shone for the North, bowling tirelessly for 48 overs and securing a five-wicket haul, finishing with figures of 5 for 125. Anshul Kamboj, who recently debuted in Test cricket, managed to take two wickets, but the rest of the bowlers found it hard to contain the South Zone batters.<\/p>\n In the other semifinal, Central Zone made a strong start in their chase of 438 runs, thanks to solid performances from their top-order batsmen. Openers Danish Malewar and Ayush Pandey put together a strong partnership of 93 runs. Malewar, fresh from a double century in the quarterfinals, continued his good form, scoring a smooth 76 off 136 balls, displaying great skill and composure. Pandey chipped in with a quick 40 before being dismissed.<\/p>\n After Malewar’s catch behind off spinner Dharmendra Jadeja, Shubham Sharma took over. With patience, he faced challenging spells from the bowlers and reached his half-century off 118 balls. He finished the day unbeaten on 60 runs, with captain Rajat Patidar alongside him on 47. The two added 69 runs for the third wicket, propelling Central Zone to 229 for 2 by the end of the day’s play.<\/p>\n Earlier, West Zone had extended their overnight score of 363 for six to a total of 438 runs, with skipper Shardul Thakur<\/strong> scoring a gritty 56 runs before being run out. Tanush Kotian, who resumed his innings on 65, went on to make 76 runs, while Central’s spin bowlers, led by Harsh Dubey, wrapped up the remaining wickets effectively.<\/p>\n As the semifinals head into the next phase, both matches remain finely balanced. South Zone will hope their total of 536 gives them an edge over North Zone’s batting, while Central Zone aims to close the gap, currently trailing by 209 runs with eight wickets still in hand, as they look to take a crucial lead against West Zone.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Duleep Trophy Semifinals: South Zone Shines, Central Zone Fights Back The second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinals at the BCCI Centre of Excellence was all about runs, as South Zone built a solid first-innings total against North Zone, while Central Zone aimed to chase down West Zone\u2019s hefty total of 438. For South Zone,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[21074,21079,18433,20984,21075,21077,2436,21073,21078,21076],"class_list":{"0":"post-17187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-central-zone-batting","9":"tag-danish-malewar","10":"tag-duleep-trophy","11":"tag-narayan-jagadeesan","12":"tag-nishant-sindhu-wickets","13":"tag-ricky-bhui","14":"tag-shardul-thakur","15":"tag-south-zone-cricket","16":"tag-tanay-thyagarajan","17":"tag-west-zone-cricket"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiabulletinusa.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}