Nagaswalla's five-fer gets West Zone ahead

South Zone vs North Zone

Mayank Agarwal hit an impressive 76 but South Zone conceded first innings lead to North Zone by three runs under rather dramatic circumstances on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Agarwal and Tilak Varma (46) batted through the first session and put on 110 for the fifth wicket. However, from 165/5, South Zone lost three wickets without adding a run and slipped to 180/9 soon enough.

Batting with No.11 Vidwath Kaverappa, R. Sai Kishore farmed strike and edged South Zone closer to the North Zone total of 198. Captain Jayant Yadav (3 for 38) brought himself on and saw a delivery just miss the stumps for four byes which brought South Zone three runs away from parity. However, later in the over, Sai Kishore was lured into stepping out for a big shot and was stumped. Amid further interruptions due to showers and bad light, North Zone lost their openers early but extended their lead to 54 with eight wickets still remaining.

Brief scores: North Zone 198 & 51/1 lead South Zone 195 (Mayank Agarwal 76, Tilak Varma 46; Jayant Yadav 3-38, Vaibhav Arora 3-57) by 54 runs

West Zone vs Central Zone

Led by Arzan Nagaswalla's sixth first-class fifer - 5 for 74 - West Zone took a 92-run lead in the first innings before further strengthening their position in the semifinal contest, courtesy a 95-run third wicket stand between Suryakumar Yadav and Chesteshwar Pujara (en route their respective fifties) that extended their lead to 241 runs with seven wickets in hand

Resuming the day on 216 for 8, West Zone managed to add only four runs to their overnight total before getting bundled out, with Shivam Mavi picking the last two wickets and ending with a 6-fer.

However, West Zone took control soon after with Nagaswalla and Chintan Gaja ripping through the top order. Dhruv Jurel and Rinku Singh fought back with counter-attacking 40s, but West kept in control with regular strikes. After Gaja's early brace, Atit Sheth picked three wickets to compliment Nagaswalla's efforts and bowl out Central Zone for 128.

West Zone returned to bat mid-way through the second day's play and after losing their openers fairly cheaply yet again, were steadied by Pujara and Suryakumar. The latter departed soon after scoring his fifty - chipping Saurabh Kumar to the fielder at short extra cover - but Pujara went unbeaten to stumps, in the company of Sarfaraz Khan.

Brief Scores: West Zone 220 (Atit Sheth 74, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 39; Shivam Mavi 6-44) & 149/3 (Suryakumar Yadav 52, Cheteshwar Pujara 50*; Saurabh Kumar 2-30) lead Central Zone 128 (Rinku Singh 48, Dhruv Jurel 46; Arzan Nagaswalla 5-74, Atit Sheth 3-27) by 241 runs