South build on Vidwath's exploits

A miffed Mayank Agarwal may want to revisit his actions following his dismissal, but that didn’t stop South Zone from building on the opener’s contribution to a position of control on the third day of the five-day Duleep Trophy final against West Zone on Friday.

Agarwal pulled a short ball into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav at leg gully off Arzan Nagwaswalla with the batter on 35 and the team on 72 for 2 in the 23rd over.

Since it was the third bouncer of the over from the left-arm seamer, the on-field umpire reckoned it best to take it up to the third umpire - Saidharshan Kumar - for clarity before making a decision. The ball - the third umpire decided - wasn’t over the shoulder, and Agarwal was sent off.

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It was a marginal call, sure, but an unhappy Agarwal took matters into his own hands by storming to match referee Manu Nayyar with his grievance(s). He also made his displeasure with the umpires clear on his way back to the pavilion from the referee’s room. 

While this fracas ensued, the rest of the members of South had their eyes trained on stretching their lead over West.

At stumps, Hanuma Vihari’s men reached 181 for 7 in 60 overs on yet another bad-light-affected day at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, extending their lead to 248 after bowling West out for a lowly 146 earlier in the day.

If it wasn’t for the irrepressible Karnataka pacer Vidwath Kaverappa's uncanny knack for wickets, South would not have walked away with a 67-run lead despite only putting up 213 in their first stint.

After finishing the second day with four wickets, including the all-important ones of Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav and Sarfaraz Khan, Kaverappa returned to his home venue with a fourth first-class fifer in sight.

West’s lower order, expected to do a patch-up job of some sort after starting day three on 129/7, were at the mercy of Kaverappa, and they buckled. Kaverappa finished with his best first-class figures of 7 for 53 from 19 overs.

The 24-year-old from Coorg now has 48 wickets in his 12th first-class game at an average of under 20. More importantly, he couldn’t have chosen a better stage than the one here because nearly every selector under the Board’s banner is present and watching. Perhaps why Agarwal, who was out to a dodgy leg before decision in the second innings of the semifinals against North Zone, was incensed enough to act out the way he did.

Also, the end to the 64-run fourth-wicket alliance between him and Vihari, meant South were in need of tangible partnerships to survive West’s disciplined pacers.

Vihari (42), Ricky Bhui (37) and Sachin Baby (28) did exactly that in guiding South towards 200, but for the umpires stopping play for bad light for the third time on a rather sunny day. 

Of course, their hands are tied because they go by light-metre readings, but perhaps it’s time to revisit the numbers for light was certainly not a concern. Definitely not the first two times and subjectively so the third time too as they called stumps with 30 overs left in the day.