History created as East crush Central zone to win Duleep Trophy

East Zone kept their date with history as they crushed Central Zone by an innings and 20 runs to win their maiden Duleep Trophy title in an emphatic manner here on Tuesday.

Enjoying a commanding first-innings lead of 237, East Zone pace duo of Ashok Dinda (3/94) and Mohammed Shami Ahmed (4/50) shared the bulk of spoils as Central's innings terminated at 217 for nine. Vineet Saxena, who was nursing a finger injury, didn't come out to bat.

While Shami had the best match figures of 8/123, Dinda will remember this first-class season in which he finished with 59 scalps from nine games leaving the second highest wicket-taker Taduri Sudhindra (44 wickets) way behind.

The Central batsmen didn't show the gumption required to save the match. To make a match of it, patience was the key but Central batsmen weren't prepared to stay at the wicket.

The likes of Jalaj Saxena (46), Mohammed Kaif (9) were dismissed failing to mistimed pull shots.

Jalaj, who had started on an aggressive note hitting eight fours and a six, finally holed out in the deep to Basant Mohanty off Dinda's bowling. Naman Ojha (36) then nicked one to Wriddhiman Saha behind stumps off Shami's bowling while the 21-year-old Bengal speedster removed Kaif with a short-pitched delivery.

At 101 for three, there was no looking back for East as they got wickets at regular intervals. Mohnish Mishra (44) and Robin Bist (20) added 38 runs for the fourth wicket before the talented Rajasthan batsman edged one to Saha off Dinda.