East make it two in a row Spinners Saxena, Majumdar limit Central Zone to 189 in first innings as East defend Duleep Trophy title

East make it two in a row

Spinners Saxena, Majumdar limit Central Zone to 189 in first innings as East defend Duleep Trophy title

Chennai: Bengal left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena and part-time leg-break bowler Anustup Majumdar shared nine wickets among themselves as East Zone won their second successive Duleep Trophy title by virtue of their 43-run first innings lead over Central Zone. The match ended in a draw. In reply to East Zone’s first innings score of 232, almost all the Central batsmen barring opener Tanmay Srivastava found it difficult to survive on a slow track, which also offered appreciable turn as they were shot out for 189 in 83.5 overs. Srivastava made a patient 94 off 252 balls with eight fours and was Iresh’s fifth victim as he gave a simple catch to Ishank Jaggi at forward short-leg to become ninth central batsman to get out. Iresh had a career-best figures of five for 58 while Majumdar, who had done the star turn with bat during their maiden triumph last season, bamboozled the opposition with his leg-breaks and googlies to end with four for 29 in 7.5 overs. The East Zone team management had read the pitch wrong when they left out leg-spinner Samar Quadri with only Saxena being the specialist slow bowler but it didn’t take too long for skipper Natraj Behera to understand that spin was the key on the final day. The turning point came when Behera handed the ball to Majumdar in the 70th over, which tilted the match decisively in East’s favour. He immediately got Rawat caught behind with a leg-break and his googly got rid of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whose century against North in the semifinal was responsible for East’s entry in to the title round, for nought. From 147 for four, Central were suddenly 165 for seven. There wasn’t any looking back for the East after that. Resuming the day at 74 for two, East lost wickets at regular intervals as Iresh and Majumdar struck at regular intervals. Man of the match Ishank Jaggi, who scored an unbeaten century in East’s first innings, praised the bowlers for their lion-hearted effort. “I happy to have contributed to team’s cause but at the same time would like to congratulate the bowlers for their brilliant effort. For me, sticking to the wicket was the key and I did just that. I got an able partner in SP Gautam, who encouraged me to go for my shots,” a delighted Jaggi said after the match. East skipper Behera admitted that he had never seen Anustup bowl in a competitive match. “When he got one wicket, he said that he wanted to bowl more. I will certainly tell him to continue bowling leg-spinners,” he said. Brief scores: East Zone 232 and 8/0 drew with Central Zone 189 in 83.5 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 94, Iresh Saxena 5/58, Anustup Majumdar 4/29). East won on the basis of the frist innings lead