Cheteshwar Pujara, Arzan Nagaswalla power West Zone to Duleep Trophy final

Guided by the heroics of Cheteshwar Pujara and Arzan Nagaswalla across two innings, West Zone became the first team to qualify for the final match of Duleep Trophy 2023 on Saturday, 8 July.

Playing at Alur in Bengaluru, West Zone qualified via a crucial first-innings lead over Central Zone after the match ended in a draw on the final day.

The summit clash between West and either South Zone or North Zone will be held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium from July 12.

Powered by 133 off 278 balls from Pujara who was dropped by the Indian team for the West Indies Test series, West posted a mammoth 399-run target. When the match was forced to be suspended on the final day due to rainfall, Central were 128/4 having lost their main batters, Himanshu Mantri, Dhruv Jurel, and Rinku Singh.

West, perhaps, could have gone hunting for the remaining six wickets had the weather remained clear. But eventually West were not in need of that because they had a 98-run first innings lead in the bank to garner a favourable result.

Openers



Vivek Singh and Himanshu Mantri returned to the hut without offering much fight, reducing Central to 17 for 2.

Dhruv Jurel started off well in the company of Amandeep Khare but left-arm spinner Dharmendra Jadeja had him stumped by Het Patel as Central further slipped to 55 for 3.

Rinku Singh provided some artificial excitement to the proceedings, slamming a 30-ball 40. Rinku put the West bowlers through the wringer in the last hour before lunch.

Target was bordering on impossible alright, but Rinku, who had hammered 5 sixes for Kolkata Knight Riders against Yash Dayal of Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023, would have none of it.

Jadeja suffered the brunt of his aggression, getting hammered for two sixes and one of them even landed in the KSCA (2) grounds.

Earlier in the first innings, West were able to get a crucial 90+ run lead due to left arm pacer Arzan Nagaswalla who ran through the Central Zone line-up and picked up a five-wicket-haul in the first innings of the game. Central were bowled out for 128 runs against West's 220.