Going into the final day's play with South Zone needing just 117 to win with nine wickets in hand, the result seemed like a formality. By the time the first session got over and teams went out for lunch, the texture of the match had changed. There was a big question mark hanging on the fate of the overnight leaders. The answer arrived soon after the break and it was negative.
Central Zone bowlers turned the match on its head and snatched the Duleep Trophy title by nine runs at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here on Sunday. Requiring 301 to win, Central bundled out South for 291 runs for the narrowest victory in the history of the tournament, in terms of runs.The foundation of this turnaround was laid by medium pacer Pankaj Singh, who first ended the man-in-form Kl Rahul's march at 130, which came off 152 balls, and then bowled Dinesh Karthik in the same over for zero. Karthik chopped the ball back on to his stump for second duck in the match.
The twin strike certainly paved way for Central's come back into the match but South still had better chance of winning the game with just 98 more runs to get.Baba Aparajith, unbeaten overnight, was still holding the fort when R Prasanna joined him. They together set in motion the recovery process. Once they managed to tame the tough situation a bit, Prassana got aggressive and hit Ali Murtaza for two consecutive sixes in the 66th over.
Their budding partnership started to shut the door on Central's hopes. Another breakthrough was urgently needed if Central wanted to stay in the match. That's when off-spinner Jalaj Saxena entered the scene and success immediately followed. Bowling around the wicket, he managed to straighten the ball with the angle that caught Prasanna (29) lbw.
The 49-run partnership for the fourth wicket was broken and it proved to be South's last line of resistance. The wicket reduced South to 252 for 4 with 49 more runs needed for the victory that was becoming more and more difficult with each wicket.
Within no time, Aparajith was also on his way back to the pavilion on the same score. Central captain Piyush Chawla foxed him with a tossed up delivery which turned big, thanks to the fifth day pitch, and left Aparajith stranded in the middle of the pitch as Naman Ojha cleared the stumps.
Two overs later, Saxena struck again. Hanuma Vihari made the mistake of hitting against spin on a deteriorating track and paid the price. Saxena found Vihari's inside edge for a caught and bowled. The fall of Vihari, who scored crucial 75 in the first innings, signaled that match was going to the wire.
From there on, the tailenders batted like tailenders and succumbed to the pressure. While Shreyas Gopal batted sensibly, others, including South skipper Vinay Kumar, perished while attempting big slogs. Vinay charged down the pitch but missed the ball, Abhimanyu Mithun went down on one knee and tried to hoick the ball over mid-wicket but missed the ball by a mile - both against Murtaza. Pragyan Ojha was trapped lbw by Chawla.
The end came when Gopal decided to finish it before HS Sharath committed the same mistake. He stepped out to get a big hit for his team but missed the ball that crashed in to his stumps. He slumped on his knees as Central players indulged in celebration.
Brief Scores
Central Zone: 276 and 403 beat South Zone: 379 and 291 (lokesh Rahul 130, Baba Aparajith 56; Ali Murtaza 3/59, Piyush Chawla 3/83, Jalaj Saxena 2/44, Pankaj Singh 2/44) by 9 runs.