Chennai: North Zone qualified for the Duleep Trophy semifinals of the Duleep Trophy on the basis of their huge lead of 320 runs in the first innings against West Zone in the quarterfinal here at the Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday.
The last day of the match which had already become inconsequential after North had garnered a mammoth lead declared their second innings at 208-7.
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Scorecard:
North Zone : 484 and 208-7 (Shikhar Dhawan 50, Sunny Singh 28, Kamlesh Makwana 5-80)
West Zone : 164 and 69 (Bhushan Chauhan 20, Kaustubh Pawar 20, Amit Mishra 14-3-28-1)
Man-of-the-match: Shikhar Dhawan.
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North got the match off to a good start and put up 484 on board in the first innings thanks to a brilliant century by skipper Shikar Dhawan. Dhawan was well complemented by a combined bowling effort of Ishant Sharma and Amit Sharma. The duo accounted for seven wickets between them and bowled out West for a paltry 164.
North decided against follow-on and came out to bat again. At stumps on day three they were 30-0. Coming out to bat on the final day, North Zone was again led by the captain from the front with a brilliant half century.
Kamlesh Makwana was the pick of the bowlers for West and his haul of 5-80 in the second essay helped him to complete a 10 wicket match haul.
North now take on Central for a place in the finals in Hyderabad from October 14-17, while South will be up against the defending champions East in the other semifinal in Visakhapatnam.
By Indian Sports News Network