The competitive interest of the Duleep Trophy semifinal betweenNorth Zone and Central Zone at Guwahati ended after 11.3 oversplay on the final morning on Monday

13-Dec-1999The competitive interest of the Duleep Trophy semifinal betweenNorth Zone and Central Zone at Guwahati ended after 11.3 oversplay on the final morning on Monday. Central Zone already ina hopeless situation at stumps on Sunday at 328 for seven inreply to North Zone’s first innings total of 543, were all outfor 366. In the remaining time two principal North Zone batsmenPankaj Dharmani and Rajiv Nayyar got some good practice forthe final as the team scored 222 for four wickets.Central Zone’s last bastion of strength Raja Ali fell to the tenthball of the morning. Ali just added one run to his overnight scorebefore he was caught by Mongia off Navdeep Singh for 123. Gandhewho had retired hurt on Sunday came back to resume his innings.Shortly afterwards Zaidi was caught by Dharmani off Robin Singhfor 21. And the same bowler ended the innings a little laterby bowling Gandhe for 18. Robin Singh finished with a fine haulof five for 84 off 38 overs.With a lead of 177 runs on the first innings, North Zone’s entryinto the final was assured. But Zaidi and Yadav injected someartificial excitement into the proceedings by dismissing AshuDani, skipper Vikram Rathour and Reetinder Singh Sodhi withonly five runs on the board. However both the in form batsmenDharmani and Nayyar came together in a fourth wicket partnershipthat ultimately realised 217 runs from 67 overs. At the fall ofNayyar’s wicket – he was out for 88 after batting 258 minutes,facing 211 balls and hitting ten foursplay was called off.Dharmani remained unbeaten with 121 made in 4-1/2 hours.He faced 203 balls and hit 20 of them to the ropes.North Zone now meet traditional rivals West Zone in the five dayfinal commencing at Calcutta from Dec 17.