Vidwath, Vyshak push West to the brink

In the nine overs between the first rain delay and the second, Vidwath Kaverappa and Vyshak Vijaykumar scythed through West Zone batting line-up as South Zone took control of the Duleep Trophy final on Thursday.

In 54 deliveries, the Karnataka pace duo - bowling to Hanuma Vihari’s astute plan - picked up four crucial wickets between them to leave West reeling at 119 for 5 in 38 overs with Cheteshwar Pujara and No.7 Atit Sheth staring at the skies for relief, even if brief.  

Solace came in the form of a second rain stoppage worth 49 minutes, but after the innings resumed at 4.35 pm with 23 minimum overs left for the day, South continued to drive into the wound. 

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Pujara was expected to plug the bleeding as you would expect from someone with close to 20,000 first-class runs to do, but an especially brilliant catch by R Samarth at leg gully (interestingly) ensured that wouldn’t be the case. 

There was more relief in store for West as bad light stopped play, but with the scoreboard reading 129 for 7 at stumps on the second day, it certainly wouldn’t seem like it. 

And the architects of West’s predicament, aka Kaverappa and Vyshak, finished with figures of 4 for 44 from 16 overs and 2 for 29 from 12 overs respectively. 

To summarise, it was South’s day through and through but didn’t seem so early on. 

After adding a mere 31 runs to their overnight tally of 182 for 7 (overall 213 all out), and with Prithvi Shaw looking every bit the prodigy he is reputed to be, South couldn’t be faulted for assuming they were in a pickle. 

Shaw’s ability to pick length was telepathic, and with that natural touch accompanying confidence bordering on the reckless, he orchestrated a range of drives so delectable even the sparse ‘home’ crowd ended up clapping.  

Of course, Vihari didn’t help the cause by opening the bowling with left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore when conditions were obviously pace friendly. But that ploy fell sideways soon enough and the pacers united. 

V Koushik, the Karnataka seamer brought in for pacer KV Sasikanth to capitalise on home conditions, scalped a flailing Priyank Panchal first up. 

Then came the Shaw blitz. But after the first rain delay (65 minutes), Kaverappa and Vyshak were at it but they were now bowling short at Shaw and full at Harvik Desai with a strategic field in place.  

Harvik’s stretch to nick Kaverappa to wicketkeeper Ricky Bhui wasn’t unexpected, but Shaw’s uppercut off Vyshak into the hands of Kaverappa at third man, although instinctive, and came off looking inane.

Shaw stated only recently that he would save himself from the shot!

Worse yet, Suryakumar Yadav was his typically reckless self. But it was a steep short of a length ball outside the off from Kaverappa that accounted for him at first slip. And then there was Sarfaraz Khan’s plumb leg before wicket off the same bowler. 

Kaverappa’s unchanged spell resulted in figures of 10-3-22-4. And Vyshak and Koushik did what they do best: complement their State-mate. Thus, South came off looking like a ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy day.