Almost a turnaround. That is how one can sum up the second day's play in the Duleep Trophy final between North Zone and West Zone at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday.
While North dominated the opening day, it was West's turn to return the compliment on day two. And they did it to quite an extent, reducing their opponents to 274/9 the same total in their first essay before letting them off the hook.
Ashok Thakur (33 not out) and VRV Singh (33) put on a 66-run partnership for the final wicket to ensure North had their nose ahead going into the third day.
Resuming at their comfortable overnight position of 53 without loss, North were shocked with the very first ball of the day -- Siddharth Trivedi pitching it just outside the off stump, inducing an edge from Aakash Chopra (35) and Cheteshwar Pujara taking a comfortable catch at third slip.
North had hardly recovered from the initial shock when they were dealt a second blow two balls later, Karan Goel fishing on an outgoing delivery and guiding it to Parthiv Patel.
Two down, even they could blink and North were kept on the back foot thereafter.
Shikar Dhawan (30) and Mithun Manhas (26) hung around for some time before Trivedi struck again, cleaning up the former and getting the latter caught behind in a span of two overs.
North Zone were four down with only 97 on board.
Rajat Bhatia joined Yashpal Singh and the two began to rebuild the innings, putting on 128 runs for the fifth wicket. And both had a let off each -- left-arm spinner Rakesh Dhruv dropping both the batsmen off his own bowling.
While Singh's 59 was a patient knock, coming off 125 balls, Bhatia's 84 was an aggressive one and one which succeeded to dent the initial confidence the West bowlers had after Trivedi's early burst. No wonder he was disappointed at missing out on a century.
"Coming at number six and playing so well, I think it was a good knock," said Bhatia later. "I'm definitely unhappy at missing out on a hundred but I guess I ran out of partners."
In hindsight, he wasn't entirely wrong.
Singh's dismissal at 225 was followed by that of stumper Uday Kaul (15) and Amit Mishra (15) and when Bhatia top edged a pull off Trivedi to fine leg (Ashraf Makda), North were still three short of the West total.
They equaled the score and lost Vikramjeet Malik (3) at that juncture. 274 for nine and West had made a magnificent comeback in the match. Only if they had maintained the momentum to finish off things, it wouldn't have been as costly.
Instead, VRV was dropped at third man by Makda when he was yet to score, and adding salt to the wounds, the latter's poor throw resulted in four extra runs for North. They had taken the lead.
VRV, who after his exploits with the ball a day earlier, shone with the bat as well -- and Thakur then punished West for their blemish, hitting the ball to all parts of the ground and putting on 66 for the final wicket before VRV was stumped off Dhruv -- that 66 turned out to be North's first innings lead.
Trivedi was the pick of bowlers with 6 for 67, and all crucial wickets at that. However, Makda letting off VRV cost him a seventh scalp and left him a trifle disappointed at the end of the day
"It was disappointing as I would have got seven wickets but more importantly, the lead would have been curtailed," said Trivedi. "Now I hope our batsmen will play well. Even if we make 350-odd runs in the second innings, we can think of winning this match."
West finished the day at two without loss in the second essay.
Scorecard:
West Zone (1st innings): 274
North Zone (1st innings, overnight 53/0):
A Chopra c Pujara b Trivedi 35
S Dhawan b Trivedi 30
K Goel c Patel b Trivedi 0
M Manhas c Patel b Trivedi 26
Y Singh c Jobanputra b Dhurv 59
R Bhatia c Makda b Trivedi 84
U Kaul c Patel b Dhurv 15
A Mishra c Patel b Trivedi 15
VS Malik c Patel b Jobanputra 3
A Thakur not out 33
VRV Singh st Patel b Dhurv 33
Extras: (lb 4, w 3) 7
Total: (all out in 100 overs) 340
Fall of wickets:1-53, 2-53, 3-88, 4-97, 5-225, 6-249, 7-268, 8-271, 9-274 (Malik, 83.6 ov), 10-340 (Singh, 99.6 ov)
Bowling: SK Trivedi 27-6-67-6, A Makda 17-6-55-0, Y Pathan 12-0-54-0, R Dhurv 24-3-87-3, S Jobanputra 20-4-73-1
West Zone (2nd innings):
S Kukreja not out 0
W Jaffer not out 0
Extras: (lb 1, nb 1) 2
Total: (for no loss in 2 overs) 2
Bowling: VRV Singh 1-0-1-0, V Malik 1-1-0-0.
