Central spinners fatally trip up cruising South

In an amazing turnaround, triggered by Central Zone's spinners and some panicky batting from South Zone, Central snatched the Duleep Trophy title by nine runs - the narrowest win in the tournament's history, in terms of runs. This was Central's first Duleep triumph in ten seasons.

The day began with South cruising towards a target of 301, on 184 for 1, scoring at a brisk rate too - they had got to where they were in 44 overs. KL Rahul was past his second hundred in the game, batting on 121, and the ever-dependable B Aparajith had also got a feel of proceedings, on 30. The stand was not allowed to take root again on the final day, though, with Rahul adding just nine to his overnight score - in about six overs of play - before he fell lbw to seamer Pankaj Singh. Pankaj made it a double blow, bowling Dinesh Karthik for a duck in the same over. Karthik chopped on for his first pair in first-class cricket.

Even then, South seemed favourites, needing 98 to win with seven wickets in hand. A 49-run stand between Aparajith and R Prasanna followed, closing the door even more on Central. That's when the spinners turned the game.

First, offspinner Jalaj Saxena beat Prasanna with one that went the other way, trapping him lbw for 29. In the very next over, legspinner Piyush Chawla beat the advancing Aparajith to have him stumped. From there on the tail batted like a tail - most of the bowlers were out attempting big slogs, when there was plenty of time and not many runs needed. Apart from the other two spinners, left-arm spinner Murtaza also benefitted, and South ended up short in a chase they had looked like acing on the fourth evening.