Duleep Trophy: Sai Kishore wreaks havoc on North Zone

Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore stole the show with a seven-wicket haul as South Zone seized the all-important lead against North Zone on the third day

Salem: Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore stole the show with a seven-wicket haul as South Zone seized the all-important lead against North Zone on the third day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Saturday.

Meanwhile in Coimbatore, Prithvi Shaw’s blistering 142 (140 balls, 15 fours, 4 sixes) helped West Zone set Central Zone a massive target of 501 in the other semifinal.

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Tamil Nadu spinner Sai Kishore, who has been impressive in the white ball formats, came up with a superb showing, snaring seven wickets including that of the talented Yash Dhull (39, 70 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) to help dismiss North Zone for 207 in 67 overs.

Resuming at 24 for no loss, Dhull and Manan Vohra (27) pushed North Zone‘s first innings score to 67 before off-spinner K Gowtham (2 for 68) struck the first blow, removing the latter, caught by Rohan Kunnummal.

Dhull, who had slammed a ton in the quarterfinal against East Zone, could not carry on his good form, following Vohra into the pavillion four runs later. He nicked one to keeper Ricky Bhui to give Sai Kishore his first scalp.

North slipped to 116 for 4 as captain Mandeep Singh (14) and Dhruv Shorey (28) were dismissed in quick succession. Himanshu Rana (17) and Nishant Sindhu (40, 64 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes) put on 48 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, the exit of Rana, who was trapped leg before by Sai Kishore, saw North lose another wicket quickly. Sindhu kept fighting but he did not get much support from the other end and Sai Kishore ran through the lower order.

North were dismissed for 207, giving South a mammoth first innings lead. The lanky spinner finished with 7 for 70 and played a huge role in the team securing the first innings advantage.

Brief scores:
South Zone 630/8 dec in 172 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 143, Hanuma Vihari 134, Ricky Bhui 103 no) and 157/1 in 28 overs (Rohan Kunnummal 77, Mayank Agarwal 53 batting) vs North Zone 207 in 67 overs (Nishant Sindhu 40; R Sai Kishore 7/70);

West Zone 259 in 85.4 overs (Rahul Tripathi 67, Prithvi Shaw 60; Kumar Kartikeya Singh 5/66) and 371 in 104.4 overs (Prithvi Shaw 142, Het Patel 67, Armaan Jaffer 49, Kartikeya Singh 3/05) vs Central Zone 128 in 40.1 overs (Tanush Kotian 3/17, Jaydev Unadkat 3/24) and 33/2 in 9.2 overs.