14 July,2023 07:30 AM IST | Bangalore | R Kaushik
Vidwath Kaverappa celebrates after dismissing West Zone’s Suryakumar Yadav yesterday. Pic/PTI
The Duleep Trophy final had been touted as a battle between the star-studded batting unit from West Zone and the fast bowlers from South Zone, exclusively made up of three hometown boys. Day Two of the contest lived up to that expectation as Vidwath Kaverappa, Vyshak Vijaykumar and V Koushik ran rings around West to take a strong grip over proceedings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Around the frustrations of a stop-start routine, the three quicks found enough drive and verve to push West to a corner. When bad light and then driving rain forced a halt to the proceedings, West were floundering at 129-7 with their celebrated array of big names back in the pavilion.
Holders West are still 84 behind South's first-innings tally of 213, a 31-run improvement on their overnight 182 for seven.
Apart from throwing the new ball to left-arm spinner Sai Kishore for three exploratory overs that leaked 19 runs, Hanuma Vihari marshalled his troops beautifully. He was fortunate that the three pacers were willing and able to bowl long spells once a stunning half-century from Prithvi Shaw had come to an end.
Shaw lost captain Priyank Panchal to the fifth ball of swing exponent Koushik's first over of 10 in a row - the seventh of the innings - as he wafted at a widish delivery and was smartly snaffled by Mayank Agarwal high to his right at second slip. Undaunted, the little right-hander played with freedom, capitalising on the full lengths the South pacers employed in looking for swing as he unleashed driving of the highest quality.
Shaw and Harvik Desai, batting at No. 3 ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara, added 70 for the second wicket, but like South the previous day, once this pair was separated, there was a steady procession to and from the middle. Kaverappa, the strapping Coorgi coming off a five-wicket haul in the semis against North, effected the breakthrough by having Desai caught behind, Shaw fell to an almost involuntary ramp and holed out to third man off Vyshak and West were beginning to lose their way.
Kaverappa produced an excellent delivery that lifted from a length to catch the splice of Suryakumar Yadav's bat on its way to first slip off the last delivery before tea, trapped Sarfaraz Khan palpably in front for his second duck in three innings and then netted the biggest fish when Pujara flicked a full ball and was brilliantly caught at a widish leg gully by R Samarth, stretching full length to his left to hold on to the firm stroke.
Three huge wickets having fallen for just nine runs, West were dealt another blow when Mulani was dismissed by Vyshak, whose only spell was a marathon 12-0-29-2. Kaverappa was the undisputed star, though, during an unchanged third burst of 10-3-22-4.
Brief scores
South 213 (H Vihari 63, T Varma 40; S Mulani 3-29, C Gaja 2-27, D Jadeja 2-33, A Nagwaswalla 2-62) v West 129-7 (P Shaw 65; V Kaverappa 4-44, V Vyshak 2-29)
