Bengaluru, Aug 31: Central Zone have advanced to the Duleep Trophy semi-finals on the basis of their first-innings lead over North-East Zone in their drawn quarter-final game at the BCCI CoE Ground 2 on Sunday. Central Zone will now face West Zone in the semi-final at the CoE from September 4.

In the morning, North East Zone began their pursuit of chasing an improbable 679 to win, after Central Zone declared their innings at 331/7 in 80.3 overs, with their lead standing at 678 runs. They managed to make 200/6 in 58 overs, before the game ended in a draw, with Jehu Anderson and R Jonathan making 64 and 60 respectively.

North East Zone’s chase began with Karnajit Yumnam and Techi Doria seeing off challenging bowling from Deepak Chahar and Khaleel Ahmed to share a 40-run opening partnership. The breakthrough for Central Zone came in the 14th over when left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey had Yumnam (17) caught by skipper Rajat Patidar at cover.

On the very next ball, Central Zone struck again as Aditya Thakare castled Doria for 15, before removing Ashish Thapa for 13, as he nicked behind to substitute keeper Upendra Yadav. But Anderson and Jonathan put up a strong resistance by sharing a partnership of 110 off 168 balls for the fourth wicket.

Their admirable fightback ended soon as off-spinner Shubham Sharma removed Anderson for 64 before castling Hem Chetri. Dubey then picked up his second wicket by removing Jonathan for 60, as North East Zone slipped from 176/3 to 186/6, losing three wickets for just 10 runs. With no result in sight, both teams agreed to a draw at tea and play was called off.

Brief Scores: Central Zone 532/4 dec and 331/7 dec (Shubham Sharma 122; Akash Kumar 2-44) draw with North East Zone 185 and 200/6 in 58 overs (Jehu Anderson 64, R Jonathan 60; Shubham Sharma 2-10, Aditya Thakare 2-21).

(IANS)