Duleep Trophy 2023 Final Day 2 HIGHLIGHTS: West Zone 129/7, trails by 84 runs at stumps

Stumps has been taken on day 2. Another rain-hit day but South Zone finds itself at the top. Kaverappa picked up four wickets to set up the game for his team. Prithvi Shaw was the only batter who managed to score for West with his 65 off 101 balls.

The play has been stopped again due to badlight.

Vyshak gets his second wicket in the form of Shams Mulani, who edges a wide delivery straight to the keeper. It’s a low catch and the umpires have gone upstairs to check it. Third umpire gives it OUT. West Zone in huge trouble.

On the next ball, new batter Dharmendrasinh Jadeja almost chops it on to the stumps.

Kaverappa gets his fourth breakthrough as gets Cheteshwar Pujara OUT caught at leg gully. Pujara tried to flick the ball towards the square leg, he times it well but the ball is in the air and R Samarth takes a spectacular catch stretching towards his left.

Tight bowling by South. No easy runs on offer. Pujara and Atit look solid though.

Pujara and Atit Sheth are out in the middle. Kaverappa with the ball.

The covers are coming off. Although the pitch is still covered but the side covers are being removed.

The main cover is now being taking away.

Super sopper at work. Ground is being cleared. Shouldn’t take a long time for play to resume.

Clouds are back around the stadium and umpires have taken out the light meter. The players are walking back to the dressing room. And its raining again.

Sarfaraz Khan goes for a duck. Kaverappa gets his third wicket as he traps Sarfaraz in front and the umpire immediately raised the finger. Despite a review by the batter, it showed three reds and Sarfaraz had to walk back.

Atit Sheth comes to the crease.

And with that run, Pujara now has 19411 First-Class runs and becomes the fifth-highest run-scorer among Indians, surpassing Wasim Jaffer.

Duleep Trophy 2023: Pujara overtakes Jaffer in most First-Class runs by Indians

Cheteshwar Pujara has become the fifth highest run-scorer among Indians in the First-Class cricket on Thursday.

The players are back in the middle. New batter Sarfaraz Khan joins Cheteshwar Pujara at the crease. West trails by 99 runs.

Suryakumar Yadav OUT! Kaverappa on fire. He induces an edge off Suryakumar’s bat that goes straight to the slips.

And that will be Tea on day 2.

Suryakumar Yadav smashes a SIX on the very first ball he faces. A short ball and Surya pulls it in his trademark style. The ball went just above the ropes even though the fielder at square leg was interested and even got a hand to it.

He tries to pull the next ball as well and gets a top edge but the ball lands safely.

Prithvi Shaw OUT! The short ball tactic against Shaw has worked for South. Ever since the break, both Vyshak and Kaverappa tested him with short balls. This time Shaw tried to upper cut it only to give a simple catch to the deep-third. Shaw goes for 65, Vyshak gets his first wicket.

His wicket brings Suryakumar Yadav to the crease.

Kaverappa gets Harvik. A breakthrough for South as Harvik chases a wide ball and ends up edging it to the keeper. A 70-run stand for the second wicket comes to an end.

Cheteshwar Pujara joins Prithvi Shaw at the crease.

A huge appeal for a catch at short-leg. Vyshak with a short delivery which was just above waist height. Harvik tries to play it towards fine leg but misses it and the ball jumps and short-leg catches it. Umpire Anil Choudhary declines and South takes the DRS. No edge and the umpire’s decision stays. Review lost.

The players are back in the middle. Prithvi Shaw and Harvik Desai were looking before the rain stopped play.

Shaw at strike. Vyshak starts with two back-to-back bouncers.

The rain has stopped at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and the covers are off. The play to resume at 2:33 PM IST.

Looks like the sun is completely out with no real signs of rain at least for now.

The covers are still on. Looks like the delay will continue for a while now.

Rain stops play again in this match. Covers are on. Seems like a passing drizzling though.

Shaw has hit some solid cover drives but unfortunately hasn’t been able to find the gap. The Shaw-Harvik pair has added 65 runs for the second wicket so far.

Umpires have taken out the light meter. Seems like all good to continue.

Kaverappa bowling too wide and Harvik latches on to one and smashes it towards the cover region. It was in the air for a while, keeping the fielder at covers interested but it was too high to catch despite a full-stretch by Sai Kishore. Four.

A runout chance on the last ball but the throw was too weak by the fielder at mid-on. It was a straight drive by Harvik and didn’t had enough power.

Fifty for Prithvi Shaw! A solid innings. His 16th First-Class half-century and it has come in just 73 balls including seven fours.

V Vyshak bowls in this match for the first time. Just two runs from that over. Shaw hit a well-timed drive only to be stopped at the covers.

The players are back in the middle for the second session. Prithvi Shaw and Harvik Desai at the crease with West trailing by 145 runs. A lot of batting to come.

Shaw at the crease, V Koushik with the ball.

Two boundaries in that Kaverappa over just before Lunch. Shaw and Harvik have looked solid although South has cut down the scoring rate in the last 30 minutes.

Shaw brakes the shackles with a cut off Koushik that went in the gap and runs away towards the point region. Koushik follows it with a super delivery that completely beats Shaw who tried to defend it on the front foot but the ball just nips away.

South bowlers have kept things tight and not allowed West batters, especially Shaw, to score easily.

West crosses 50-run mark in the 14th over. Shaw and Harvik looking solid at the crease.

Prithvi Shaw taking the attack. He’s on 31 off 21 with six fours. Harvik Desai too found a boundary with an edge past the slip cordon.

V Koushik gets a wicket in his first over. Panchal goes back to the dug out. Slashes hard at a wide delivery and gets an edge. Mayank Agarwal with a sharp catch at second slip.

Harvik Desai joins Shaw in the middle.

Prithvi Shaw smashes two FOURs in Kaverappa’s over. A cover drive and a clip through mid wicket.

A confident start by the West Zone batter. The deficit at 186 runs.

Panchal with a massive hit against Sai Kishore. Steps out and gets to the pitch of the delivery to hammer it over the long off boundary.

All 19 runs in the innings have been scored off Sai Kishore’s bowling.

Kaverappa nearly gets an edge from Panchal on two occasions. A second maiden over for him.

In the previous over, Sai Kishore concedes eight from his over which included a FOUR from Shaw.

Vidwath Kaverappa accurate as ever with his line. Panchal, though, is happy to shoulder arms to his deliveries. The South Zone bowler starts with a maiden.

Prithvi Shaw and Priyank Panchal take the crease for West.

South, quite interestingly, starts with the off spin of Sai Kishore. Turn on offer for him straight up.

V Koushik last two deliveries. He goes for a front foot defence but gets a faint outside edge. West has to take a DRS to get the decision in its favour.

Chintan Gaja with a blinder! Vidwath Kaverappa again lofts the ball to long on. Gaja takes a diving catch inches within the boundary. Brilliant work! Jadeja gets his first wicket.

Koushik V is the last batter.

Dharmendrasinh Jadeja continues to race through his overs. Another maiden to Kaverappa with which is innings tally of maiden overs goes to six.

After 13 dot deliveries, Kaverappa with a heave over mid wicket for FOUR runs. He then takes a single off the final delivery. Washington Sundar on 21 off 61.

Shams Mulani gets rid of Vyshak on his very first delivery. A leading edge which is taken comfortably at point.

Vidwath Kaverappa is the new batter.

Vyshak with a leg glance against Nagwaswalla to find the fence for FOUR runs. The bowler bowls a no ball too. 200 comes up for South Zone in the over.

Arzan Nagwaswalla continues his economical spell. Just one run from his previous over.

Dharmendrasinh Jadeja is the bowler from the other end. He starts off with just one run from the over.

Washington Sundar starts the day with a boundary in the first over. A pull shot on the back foot. South Zone would be hoping for more of those shots.

Arzan Nagwaswalla bowls to V Vyshak to start the day. Washington Sundar at the non-striker’s end.

The Karnataka batter used a fair bit of luck during his stay at the crease on Day 1. He was dropped by Sarfaraz Khan at short leg and offered another couple of half chances. But in the same innings, Agarwal brought up his 7000th First Class run.

Chances of rain again very high at 80% in Bengaluru. Thankfully, the worst of the rain is expected only after 4pm which means we could have a majority overs completed in the day.

A very good morning to all our readers. The second day of play in the Duleep Trophy final is just about an hour away.

Day 1 turned out to be a tale of two halves. South Zone, despite the fall of two early wickets, was in control at Lunch. Hanuma Vihari and Tilak Varma were at crease and had put the innings back on track. In the second session, though, West Zone clawed back courtesy its pace battery. Vihari got past 50 but his resistance was ended by Shams Mulani. None of the other middle order batters threatened really. Washington Sundar and Vyshak Vijaykumar were at crease when rain forced a stop in proceedings in the third session.

Day 2, for South, should start with Sundar farming the strike and trying to get as many runs as possible. Some support from the tail and the team total, currently 182 for seven, could stretch to 250.