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Ayush Badoni’s double century powered North Zone into the Duleep Trophy semifinals after a drawn match with East Zone. Auqib Nabi took five wickets.
Ayush Badoni smashed a double century as North Zone booked spot in the semifinals of the Duleep Trophy (PTI)
Ayush Badoni scored a fluent double century, leading North Zone into the semifinals of the Duleep Trophy by securing a first-innings lead in their quarterfinal match against East Zone, which concluded in a draw on the fourth and final day on Sunday.
Starting from an overnight score of 388 for two, North Zone continued to bat and finished at 658 for four, amassing a lead of 833 runs before both teams agreed to a draw.
Badoni (204 off 223 balls) and Kanhaiya Wadhawan (23) remained unbeaten. Badoni capitalised on North Zone’s decision to extend their innings, achieving his second first-class double century in style.
Resuming at 56 overnight, Badoni played a near-perfect innings, reaching his hundred in 123 balls with a single, celebrating the milestone with a modest wave of the bat. He advanced to 99 with a six off Manishi.
Meanwhile, skipper Ankit Kumar (198), starting the day at 168, had a golden opportunity to score a double century but was dismissed trying to pull pacer Mukhtar Hussain, caught by Suraj Jaiswal at mid-on. Badoni and Ankit Kumar had forged a partnership of 150 for the third wicket.
East Zone’s hopes of respite were dashed as Badoni, in partnership with Nishant Sindhu (68, 91 balls, 2 fours, 5 sixes), added 157 runs to propel North Zone past the 600-run mark, with their overall lead exceeding 700.
The only point of interest in an otherwise uneventful day was Badoni reaching his double century, which he achieved in 222 balls. He reached the landmark with a boundary, scoring 54 runs off 55 balls in the final hour.
Auqib Nabi of North Zone, who took five wickets including a hat-trick in East Zone’s first innings, was named man of the match.
Why North Zone Go For Outright Win?
North Zone captain Ankit Kumar explained their decision to continue batting despite having a chance for an outright victory:
“If we wanted, we could have gone for the result because we had upper hand. But we didn’t try because we were in the lead in the first innings. We did very good batting in the first innings and then bowling. We also wanted to keep Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as much fresh as possible (ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup.) But we made some wrong decisions that we couldn’t click in the batting in the first innings. Otherwise, we could have taken even more upper hand in the first innings.”
(With inputs from PTI)
Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin…Read More
Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin… Read More
Read More
