Duleep Trophy: West Zone on top after Pujara's ton

West Zone vs Central Zone

Cheteshwar Pujara's 133 - his 60th first-class century (fourth joint-highest alongside Vijay Hazare among Indians), guided West Zone to 292 for 9 at the end of the third day's play in the Duleep Trophy semifinal clash against Central Zone in Alur, extending the lead to 384 runs.

On a rain-marred day, Pujara led West Zone's batting charge even as the rest struggled. Resuming the day unbeaten on 50, he lost his overnight partner - Sarfaraz Khan - in the first over of Friday. None of the other batters, apart from Het Patel (27) managed to register double digit scores.

Once Pujara reached his century, he went on the offensive while also farming the strike with No 9 & 10 Chintan Gaja and Arzan Nagaswalla. He was run out by Saransh Jain (who also picked three wickets with the ball) only a few minutes before rain brought an abrupt end to the day's play mid way through the second session.

Brief Scores: West Zone 220 (Atit Sheth 74, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 39; Shivam Mavi 6-44) & 292/9 (Suryakumar Yadav 52, Cheteshwar Pujara 133; Saurabh Kumar 4-79, Saransh Jain 3-56) lead Central Zone 128 (Rinku Singh 48, Dhruv Jurel 46; Arzan Nagaswalla 5-74, Atit Sheth 3-27) by 384 runs

South Zone vs North Zone

Vijaykumar Vyshak claimed a fiver-fer but also conceded at over five-runs an over as the Duleep Trophy semifinal between the South and North Zone was left well-poised after a rain-hit third day that allowed for only 53 overs of play at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. At Stumps on the penultimate day, South Zone were left needing 194 more runs for victory with all 10 second innings wickets intact.

It was North Zone that began in the ascendancy after claiming a slender first-innings lead and pushing it to 54 on Day 2. They lost Ankit Kalsi early to Vidwath Kaverappa before Prabhsimran Singh and Ankit Kumar put on a fine 85-run stand for the fourth wicket. The former played the dominant hand in the stand, and countered the swinging conditions with some admirable strokeplay. The best of his 11 fours were the ones timed straight down the ground. Prabhsimran was eventually dismissed for 63 top-edging an attempted pull against a short-ball ploy set to elicit just that.

Ankit Kumar fell to Sai Kishore soon after and Vyshak ran through the lower middle-order to complete a five-fer and leave the North Zone at 171/8. There was also profligacy from the Karnataka and RCB medium-pacer that was cashed on best by No.9 Harshit Rana, who scored a crucial 36-ball 38 and pushed the lead past 200. Asked to chase 215 for victory, Sai Sudharsan and Mayank Agarwal hit 21 in 6.3 nervy overs before persistent rain brought an end to proceedings and set up a tantalising final day.

Brief scores: North Zone 198 & 211 (Prabhsimran Singh 63, Harshit Rana 38; Vijaykumar Vyshak 5-76) lead South Zone 195 & 21/0 by 193 runs.