Mulani’s fifer helps West Zone set up final clash with South

Shams Mulani

Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, who finished as the highest wicket-taker in Ranji Trophy, continued his rich vein of form by taking 5-72, as West beat Central by 279 runs in the Duleep Trophy semi-final here on Sunday.

Chasing a gigantic target of 501, Central were never in contention to make a match of it and were all out for 221 in little over 57 overs.

Chintan Gaja, the seamer whose mindless bravado of deliberately throwing the ball back on follow through injured Venkatesh Iyer, also got his act together and chipped in with three wickets.

Also Read: Duleep Trophy: Venkatesh Iyer gets injured after a player flings a wild throw!

Rinku Singh (65 off 71 balls), and ‘concussion substitute' Ashok Menaria (in place of Venkatesh Iyer) (32 off 71 balls), delayed the inevitable with a 87-run stand for the seventh wicket.

Meanwhile, in another semi-final, left-arm orthodox spinner R Sai Kishore's maiden match haul of 10 wickets ensured a staggering 645-run victory for South Zone over North. The margin of victory was one of the highest in Indian first-class cricket.

Also Read: New ball, please! BCCI introduces Kookaburra ball in Duleep Trophy

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever