Saurabh Kumar's eight-for crushes East Zone; North trounce North East

Saurabh Kumar's career-best figures of 8 for 64 helped Central Zone romp to a 170-run win over East Zone in Alur to secure a place in the semi-final of the Duleep Trophy. The left-arm spinner finished with 11 wickets in the match, having taken 3 for 46 in the first innings.

Central will next face West Zone, the defending champions who had direct entry into the semi-final. That game, starting on July 5, will also be played in Alur.

East had started the final day at 69 for 6, and it took Central only 12 overs on the final morning to get the remaining four wickets, all going to Saurabh.

Saurabh first trapped Riyan Parag lbw in the 34th over, before cleaning up Shahbaz Nadeem in the 38th. Four overs later, he removed Akash Deep and Ishan Porel off successive deliveries to seal the win. East's top scorer in the second innings was No. 10 Akash Deep, who entertained with a 14-ball 24, which included three sixes off Saurabh.

Saurabh's eight wickets meant East folded for 129, their second batting failure in the game after they had managed only 122 in the first attempt. The other two wickets in East's second innings went to Shivam Mavi and Avesh Khan on the third evening.

North Zone decimated North East Zone by 511 runs on the fourth morning in Bengaluru to complete the formalities towards their march to the semi-final. North will now be facing South Zone from July 5 onwards at the same venue to try to make the final.

Having started the day on 58 for 3, North East lost 7 for 53 in a middle-order collapse fashioned by Pulkit Narang. He got four of those wickets with his offspin.

The only bright spot for North East was the 57-run fourth-wicket partnership between Palzor Tamang and Nilesh Lamichaney. It was allrounder Nishant Sindhu who broke the stand with Lamichaney's wicket, which began North East's slide from 101 for 3. Tamang, who top-scored with 40, was next to fall, as Narang got his first wicket in the second outing.

While Narang finished the game with seven wickets and 46 runs, it was also a memorable game for North's young players, such as Sindhu, who had hit 150 before picking up two wickets on Saturday, and Harshit Rana, who scored an unbeaten 122 and also took two wickets in the match.