Central Zone clinch Duleep trophy early on Day 5

Rajat Patidar led Central Zone to Duleep Trophy triumph over South Zone in Bengaluru on Monday (September 15). Central Zone, who batted South Zone out of the game in the first innings, needed just 65 runs to win on Day 5. They got there in the 21st over, losing four wickets in the process.

Ankit Sharma and Andre Siddarth's 192-run stand on Day 4 saved South Zone from going down by an innings, but their defiance couldn't prevent defeat. Central Zone's Kumar Kartikeya finished with eight wickets in the game (4 in each innings). Once Kartikeya broke the partnership between Sharma and Siddarth, South Zone's innings collapsed. They went from 414/6 to 426 all-out, setting Central Zone a paltry target.

Ankit and Gurjapneet Singh reduced Central Zone to 24/3 in the chase, but the target was too little to eke out a full-fledged collapse. Ankit dismissed Patidar, but that was merely consolatory. Yash Rathod, Central Zone's run accumulator from the first innings, wrapped up the victory with a boundary off Vasuki Koushik.

Brief scores:
South Zone 149 & 426 (Ankit Sharma 99, Andre Siddarth 84*, Smaran Ravichandran 67; Kumar Kartikeya 4-110, Saransh Jain 3-130) lost to Central Zone 511 & 66/4 (Akshay Wadkar 19*, Yash Rathod 13*; Gurjapneet Singh 2-21) by 6 wickets