Duleep Trophy: Jaiswal slams fifty; Shreyas Iyer fails again

Yashasvi Jaiswal's sparkling fifty remained a mere personal landmark as Central Zone advanced to the Duleep Trophy final by virtue of their first innings lead in the drawn match against West Zone, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.

Central Zone will face South Zone in the final, scheduled in Bengaluru from September 11.

Jaiswal (64) peppered the boundary lines often in his 70-ball innings that helped West reach 216/8 in their second innings, but the 162-run innings lead that they conceded earlier sealed their fate.

Central, resuming on their overnight score of 556/8, were bowled out for 600 but not before Saransh Jain (63 not out) compiled a well-deserved fifty.

West skipper Shardul Thakur (6) was dismissed at the stroke of tea, with Tanush Kotian (40) batting at the other end, and the both teams agreed to shake hands at that point, signalling a draw.

While not seeing his side in the title clash might come as a disappointment for Jaiswal, he would be happy to spend some good time in the middle for the first time after the Test series against England.

He was his usual aggressive self while making a fifty at a strike-rate of 92, but eventually the aggression proved his undoing as a rather ugly swipe off left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (3/96) ended his stay.

However, Shreyas Iyer, who came to bat at No 7, disappointed for the second time in the match, getting out for 12. 

Iyer, who will captain India A against Australia A in two red-ball games later this month, nicked off-spinner Saransh Jain (5/84) to stumper Upendra Yadav.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made a big hundred in the first innings, started positively, slamming two sixes but soon perished to Dubey for 16.

Once their three main batters did not kick on and slipped to 168

for six, the duty to save the day for the West Zone side fell on late order batters such as Kotian, Tushar Deshpande and Thakur.

They were tested to the hilt by Dubey and Jain before Deshpande fell to the latter, giving a simple catch to Rajat Patidar at mid-wicket.

But Central did not press for the outright win despite West's lead being a minuscule 54 with just two wickets left.

Thakur was understandably disappointed particularly with the batting in the first innings where West were bowled out for 438.

"In the first innings of Day 1, there were a few shots that we could have avoided as a batting unit and that's where we lost the momentum. And then of course Ruturaj batted brilliantly to bring us back in the game.

"The partnership between me and Tanush was good but my run out was probably one of the turning points as well. If we had scored 500 from there, then this game would have definitely turned in our favour. Of course, some catches from our side were put down and a few very close calls not coming our way too,” said Thakur after the match.

West Zone wicketkeeper Harvik Desai suffered a right quadricep injury that required an MRI scan to ascertain the extent of the injury.

Desai was replaced by Maharashtra wicketkeeper batter Saurabh Nawale after the 84th over of the Central's first innings.

The North, South, West and Central Zone players who have been selected for India A's two red-ball matches against Australia A will assemble at Lucknow on September 12.

Hence, South and Central zones, who are to meet in the Duleep Trophy final from September 11, will miss the services of the likes of N Jagadeesan, Devdutt Padikkal, Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur and Khaleel Ahmed in the title clash.