Bengaluru, June 30 Riding on superb bowling performances, North Zone took a mammoth lead of 406 runs against North East Zone on Day 3 of their Duleep Trophy quarterfinal at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and moved closer to win and reach the semi-finals of the tournament, here on Friday.
Despite taking a huge lead after bowling out North East Zone for just 134, North Zone batted again instead of enforcing follow-on to declare at 259/6, with half centuries coming from the bats of Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar and captain Jayant Yadav.
The bowlers came back into the picture again to leave North East Zone at 58/3, with the side trailing North Zone by a massive 607 runs. North Zone now need seven wickets to register a thumping victory.
Resuming from 65/3 in 20 overs, Siddarth Kaul and Pulkit Narang ran through North East batters to take three wickets each and bowl them out for 134 in 39.2 overs, with Nilesh Lamichaney's 44 being the only notable effort with the bat.
North East Zone showed signs of bouncing back in the game by dismissing openers Prashant Chopra and Dhruv Shorey quickly in 5.1 overs. Prabhsimran and Kalsi joined forces for a vital 83-run partnership for the third wicket, before the latter fell for 49.
Prabhsimran would eventually make 59 before being castled by Imliwati, followed by Nishant Sindhu falling cheaply. Jayant and Kumar then stitched a 113-run partnership to swell North Zone's lead.
Once Kumar was stumped for 70 just one over after tea break was over, the declaration came from the North Zone, with Jayant being unbeaten on 55.
In defence of a huge total, Harshit Rana and Baltej Singh took out Kishan Lyndoh and Kishan Lyndoh respectively before Langlonyamba M was run-out by Chopra to leave North East Zone in tatters at stumps.
Brief Scores: North Zone 540/8 declared in 136 overs and 259/6 declared in 55.1 overs (Ankit Kumar 70, Prabhsimran Singh 59; Jotin Pheiroijam 2/44) lead North East Zone 134 in 39.2 overs and 58/3 in 18 overs (Kishan Lyndoh 14; Baltej Singh 1/11) by 608 runs
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