South Zone and Karnataka pacer Vidwath Kaverappa continued his smashing run in domestic cricket as he had the West Zone on the mat in the Duleep Trophy final in Bengaluru. South Zone bowlers needed to be on the money with just 213 runs on the board and Kaverappa led the response with the ball as the Hanuma Vihari-led side overcame a Prithvi Shaw half-century to have West Zone seven down by the stumps on Day 2.
After captain Priyank Panchal got out cheaply, Shaw and wicketkeeper Harvik Desai stitched a 70-run stand as it looked like West Zone will breeze past South Zone's score. However, the moment the partnership broke, owing to Kaverappa, it all went downhill for the West Zone. After Desai's dismissal, West Zone fell like nine pins as Prithvi Shaw got out to Vyshak Vijaykumar.
And then came the real storm. Kaverappa single-handedly took down the trio of Sarfaraz Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav as all three fell cheaply. Sarfaraz Khan, who is still waiting for his maiden Test call-up recorded his second duck and third single-digit score in the Duleep Trophy while Surya and Pujara, the two who were dropped from the Test squad after the World Test Championship (WTC) final debacle, were dismissed for single-digit scores of 9 and 8 respectively.
All three haven't helped their cause with their performances in the two games so far and even though Pujara got a century in the second innings of the semi-final, he hasn't looked all assured of his game.
Surya smashed his first delivery for a six after the fielder misjudged a simple catch near the boundary but couldn't continue for long. West Zone are in deep trouble at 129/7 having lost their last six wickets for just 32 runs. The Panchal-led side is still 84 runs behind South Zone's score and will need a monumental effort from the likes of Atiut Sheth and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja to get near 213.
