Most unsuspectingly, the fury of Stuart Binny struck East Zone twice in a day and left it staring at an embarrassing defeat after the first two days of the Duleep Trophy semifinals here on Thursday.
In reply to South Zone’s 264, East was shot out for 84. Asked to follow-on after trailing by 180 runs, East’s batsmen showed that they had not learnt lessons from the first innings and ended the second day at 30 for four.
After South resumed the day at 236 for nine and the last pair added 28 runs in 75 minutes, East lost 14 wickets for 114 runs to undo all the good work of its bowlers, who, on the first day, had brought the team back into the match by grabbing seven South wickets in the space of 25 runs, before the last wicket breathed some resistance.
Just rewardOn Thursday, dominated by bowlers, Binny broke East’s back by scalping four for 24 — his best in the competition — in the first innings and returned to take the first three wickets in the second. It was a just reward for the consistency Binny — watched by father Roger, now a National selector — maintained whether it was his teasing line or the in-swingers that kept the batsmen guessing at all times.
After South’s skipper Vinay Kumar showed the way and provided the breakthrough, Binny pushed East on the backfoot.
Sharath served more blows by sending back Manoj Tiwary and Saurabh Tiwary before Pragyan Ojha, sporting a half-sleeved shirt, mopped up the tail.
Overall, it was a truly disciplined bowling effort by South against a confident East that beat West at the same venue last week.
Skipper Manoj Tiwary and Saurabh Tiwary had struck centuries and Sudip Chatterjee scored 99.
But on this day, nothing went East’s way with Manoj falling twice to Sharath, as did Chatterjee to Binny.
The abysmal batting display by East was despite Vinay Kumar leaving the field soon after lunch following a pulled-hamstring.
On the other hand, injuries to opener Govinda Podder and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha added to East’s woes.
Still needing 150 runs to make South bat again, East is looking at Saurabh Tiwary and the experienced Laxmi Ratan Shukla, with Saha to follow, to script a dramatic comeback.
But going by the turn of events on Thursday, at best, East can only delay the inevitable.
The scores:
South Zone — 1st innings: Robin Uthappa c Saha b Dutta 120; K.L. Rahul b Shukla 21, Karun Nair c Saurabh Tiwary b Shukla 32, Manish Pandey c Saurabh Tiwary b Dutta 26, Dinesh Karthik b Shukla 9, Baba Aparajith lbw b Mohanty 7, Stuart Binny c Manoj Tiwary b Dinda 5, Vinay Kumar c & b Shukla 0, Abhimanyu Mithun b Aaron 23, Pragyan Ojha lbw b Dinda 0, H.S. Sharath (not out) 6; Extras (b-4, lb-3, nb-3, w-5): 15; Total (in 101.1 overs): 264.
Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-137, 3-211, 4-212, 5-230, 6-230, 7-230, 8-236, 9-236.
East Zone bowling: Ashoke Dinda 22-6-60-2, Basant Mohanty 21-7-30-1, Rana Dutta 19-4-60-2, Varun Aaron 15.1-4-51-1, L.R. Shukla 21-5-40-4, Manoj Tiwary 3-0-16-0.
East Zone — 1st innings: Natraj Behera b Binny 8, Govinda Podder c Pandey b Vinay 6, Sudip Chatterjee c Nair b Binny 11, Manoj Tiwary c Pandey b Sharath 4, Sourabh Tiwari c Rahul b Sharath 17, L.R. Shukla b Binny 1, Wriddhiman Saha c Karthik b Binny 0, Rana Dutta b Ojha 17, Varun Aaron (not out) 14, Basant Mohanty lbw b Ojha 4, Ashoke Dinda c (sub) Vihari b Ojha 0; Extras (w-2): 2; Total (in 47.4 overs): 84.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-25, 3-25, 4-26, 5-26, 6-34, 7-53, 8-80, 9-84.
South Zone bowling: Vinay Kumar 8-3-6-1, A. Mithun 11-3-26-0, Stuart Binny 13-5-24-4, H.S Sharath 10-4-19-2, Pragyan Ojha 5.4-3-9-3.
East Zone — 2nd innings: Govinda Podder b Binny 4, Sudip Chatterjee c Nair b Binny 5, Rana Dutta lbw b Binny 0, Manoj Tiwary c Rahul b Sharath 8, Saurabh Tiwary (batting) 2, L.R. Shukla (batting) 10; Extras (lb-1): 1; Total (for four wkts. in 15 overs): 30.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-14, 4-18.
South Zone bowling: A. Mithun 4-2-6-0, Stuart Binny 5-3-7-3, H.S. Sharath 4-0-16-1, Manish Pandey 2-2-0-0.
