South Zone clinch big win over West Zone

South Zone 291 and 307 beat West Zone 180 and 168 (Jadhav 43, Kumble 3-37) by 250 runs
Scorecard

A comprehensive bowling display clinched a 250-run win for South Zone against West Zone on the final day of their Duleep Trophy opener at Indore. Faced with the difficult task of scoring 359 runs on the final day, West Zone never got off the blocks against South Zone's disciplined attack.

Bad light forced an early close to proceedings yesterday, but Anil Kumble, who had bowled Jacob Martin with the delivery before stumps, struck three balls into the morning when he trapped Amol Muzumdar leg before for a duck. It would his only wicket on the day, but the rest of South Zone's bowlers each chipped in and skittled out West Zone for just 168. Dheeraj Jadhav, the opener, top-scored with 43 while Zaheer Khan slogged a 24-ball 33 down the order. South Zone picked up four points from this win.

East Zone 245 and 330 drew with Central Zone 148 and 171 for 7
Scorecard

Bad light forced the Duleep Trophy clash between East Zone and Central Zone at Gwalior to a draw with East just three wickets away from victory. The final day's play only began at 3:19 pm due to overnight rain, and Sourav Ganguly struck twice with the ball to take East closer to victory before bad light forced the players to go inside at 4:30. Play was eventually called off at 5.00 pm.

Central Zone resumed the day on 148 for 5, with still 298 to get, but lost Abbas Ali for his overnight score of 52 when Ganguly forced him to nick one to Subhomoy Das. Ganguly picked up his second wicket when he bowled Praveen Kumar (32). Piyush Chawla and Murali Kartik were the unbeaten batsmen at the crease.

East Zone walked away with two first-innings lead points.