Hyderabad/Visakhapatnam, Oct 17 : East and Central Zone made the Duleep Trophy final after winning their last four clashes against South and North Zone via the first innings lead.
Fast bowler Ashok Dinda's seven-wicket haul brought East Zone closer to victory before a 34-run stand for the ninth wicket saved South Zone the blushes.
South Zone were reeling at 85 for eight in their second innings when the play on the fourth day ended. They had made 244 in the first innings while East scored 267 and 215 in their two attempts.
At Hyderbad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's hundred and his 127-run stand with No. 11 Rituraj Singh helped Central Zone qualify for the final. Replying to North's 451, Central ended at 469.
The major part of the match ,however, was controlled by North. The semifinal also got a lot of attention courtesy Yuvraj Singh, who silenced his doubters with a double century.
Brief scores: North Zone 451 (Yuvraj 208, Dhawan 121, Praveen 4-92) and 187 for 4 decl. (Dewan 80, Saxena 2-51) drew with Central Zone 469 (Bhuvneshwar 128, Mishra 4-162) and 39 for 1
East Zone 267 (Tiwary 145, Mithun 4-68) and 215 (Behera 60, Kumar 3-10) drew with South Zone 244 (Kumar 61, Saxena 3-37) and 85 for 8 (Appanna 24, Dinda 7-26)
