West Zone enters Duleep Trophy final

Rajkot:

West Zone entered the final of the Duleep Trophy on the basis of their huge 475-run first innings lead after their semi-final match against North Zone ended in a tame draw on Friday.

Resuming at their overnight score of 56 for one, West Zone declared their second innings at 345/7, a few overs before the start of the mandatory overs.

The only highlight of the day was centuries by Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma.

The duo, who got together after the quick dismissal of Parthiv Patel (31) and skipper Wasim Jaffer (6) this morning, added 172 runs for the fourth wicket.

Pujara, promoted to open the innings, made 110 runs from 171 balls with the help of 16 fours. Sharma was more aggressive of the two scoring 116 runs off 129 balls. His knock was studded with five sixes and 11 fours.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, too, chipped in with a useful knock of 56.

For North Zone, Vikas Mishra was the pick off the bowlers with figures of 4-96, while Parvindar Awana, Rajat Bhatia and Ravi Inder Singh shared a wicket each.

After amassing a mammoth 769 runs in the first innings, West Zone bundled out the visitors for 294. However, they chose not to enforce the follow-on and opted for batting practice instead.