West Zone beat South to win Duleep Trophy

West Zone beat South Zone by 274 runs here Monday to lift the Duleep Trophy for the 17th time.

West Zone beat South Zone by 274 runs here Monday to lift the Duleep Trophy for the 17th time.

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South Zone, chasing a target of 678, were dismissed for 403 on the concluding day of the five-day encounter at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here.

Resuming at their overnight 232 for four, South Zone lost skipper Subramaniam Badrinath for 59 who holed out at long-on attempting to hoist left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar.

His dismissal ended a 121-run stand for the fifth wicket with Dinesh Karthik (75), as also South's hopes of forcing a face-saving draw.

Thereafter, it was just a matter of time before West picked up the remaining wickets as the rotund and crafty Romesh Powar teased and tormented the batsmen to pick up the remaining wickets for an innings haul of 7/140 and match figures of 10/287.

Badrinath admitted that South was outplayed. "We did not apply ourselves in the first innings and a target of 678 on any pitch is a bit too much," he said.

Powar's first victim today was Arjun Yadav whose attempted drive without moving his feet resulted in a tame catch to Pawar.

A little later, Karthik's hit-wicket dismissal when he shouldered arms to Powar only to disturb the bails with his right pad, was the final nail in South's coffin.

All-rounder R. Ashwin (46 not out) and M. Suresh (28) offered some resistance with a 58-run partnership for the seventh wicket, but they only delayed the inevitable.

The exit of Suresh, bowled by Powar, hastened the end as the wily off-spinner picked up the two remaining wickets, those of Shadab Jakati and Sreesanth in one over with last man R. Vinay Kumar, suffering from back spasms, opting not to bat.