North assured of Duleep Trophy

Delhi's Rahul Sanghvi made a strong claim for a place in the probables for the pre-Australia tour camp with a four-wicket haul, as North Zone cemented their grip on the Duleep Trophy, thanks to East Zone's victory over the South.

Sanghvi had impressive figures of four for 47 off 25 overs as Central Zone crawled to 370 for eight in reply to North's first innings total of 690-8 declared.

Central were on the verge of following-on with just two wickets in hand and 120 runs from saving it, but the interest in the match has died down at least for the hosts, who retained the trophy at South's expense.

North, with 18 points, are at least assured of five points from this match, which will take them to 23.

South Zone, the only team that had a mathematical chance of overhauling North, were on Saturday defeated by East Zone at Agartala, rendering the final round of matches inconsequential.

Opener J P Yadav and his overnight partner Amay Khurasia started in the morning tentatively. Central skipper Khurasia survived two chances, but his exuberance in scoring on every delivery cost him the wicket.

Khurasia added just six runs to his last evening's score to be out on 51, brilliantly caught at long on by Dinesh Mongia off Harbhajan Singh in the third over of the day.

Talented J P Yadav gelled well with Uttar Pradesh batsman Mohd Kaif to add 103 runs for the third wicket. Yadav was next to go when Jammu and Kashmir's Surinder Singh caught him at widish mid-wicket off Sanghvi. He made 78 off 107 balls hitting 12 boundaries and a six.

Kaif, aiming to get into the national probables, hit some breathtaking shots and two lusty hits over the ropes off Harbhajan Singh to catch national selector Madanlal's attention.

Kaif made 61 with six fours and two sixes before Sanghvi induced him to edge to Mongia at mid-on.

Sanghvi then had Raja Ali (29) and Rahul Kanwat (17) to also make his claim for the place in probables.

Middle-order bat Yere Goud was batting on 67 with 10 fours fighting a lone battle to save Central from an inevitable follow-on on the fourth and final day at Ferozshah Kotla ground.

Central Zone lost Devender Bundela (11), Kanwat (17), and Abhay Sharma (14) cheaply before Murli Kartik (batting 3) saw off the third day in company of Goud.

Scoreboard

North Zone (1st innings): 690-8 decl.
Central Zone (1st innings):
J P Yadav c S Singh b Sanghvi 78
A Pagnis c Dahiya b Surinder 8
A Khurasiya c Mongia b Harbhajan 51
M Kaif c Mongia b Sanghvi 61
R Ali c Nayyar b Sanghvi 29
Y Goud batting 67
D Bundela b Harbhajan 11
R Kanwat lbw b Sehwag 17
A Sharma lbw b Sanghvi 14
M Kartik batting 3
Extras (b-6, lb-4, nb-21) 31
Total (for 8 wkts, 103 overs) 370
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-94, 3-197, 4-224, 5-253, 6-288, 7-319, 8-358.
Bowling: Ashish Nehra 20-1-84-0, Surinder Singh 11-3-52-1, Harbhajan Singh 30-2-123-2, Rahul Sanghvi 25-9-47-4, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 4-1-17-0, Virender Sehwag 11-3-36-1, Yuvraj Singh 2-1-1-0.

Mail Cricket Editor