North Zone are virtually through to the semifinals of the DuleepTrophy championship

Partab Ramchand04-Dec-1999North Zone are virtually through to the semifinals of the DuleepTrophy championship. Already strongly placed at stumps on the thirdday, they consolidated their position on the penultimate day of theirquarterfinal against South Zone at Agartala on Saturday. They got afirst innings lead of 165 runs and then scored 77 for one in theirsecond innings at close of play. With an overall lead of 242 runs,nine wickets in hand and only a day left, North Zone are in a no losesituation.The day’s honours however were cornered by South Zone left handerSridharan Sarath. On 36 overnight, the Tamil Nadu batsman went on tomake 149 not out before South Zone were all out for 424 in reply toNorth Zone’s first innings total of 589.Resuming at 207 for four, South Zone lost skipper Robin Singhearly. The 36-year-old Indian all rounder was caught by Dharmani offChopra for 28. South Zone lost a sixth wicket, that of Shiraguppi whowas held by Dahiya of Navdeep Singh for four runs.At 222 for six, South Zone were well on the chopping block. But Sarathand Sunil Joshi now came together in a seventh wicket association thatrevived South Zone’s faint hopes. The two left handers put the NorthZone attack to the sword and Joshi was in a particularly aggressivemood. Sarath passed his century, Joshi got to his 50, the two postedthe century stand. Finally at 366, Joshi was caught by Dahiya offSodhi for 75. Joshi batted 139 minutes, faced 96 balls and hit 12fours and a six. The seventh wicket stand had put on 144 runs from34.3 overs.The tail consisting of Mahesh, Raju and Mansoor Ali Khan however didnot offer much resistance but Sarath was not to be dismissed andremained unbeaten when the innings came to an end. For his 149, Sarathbatted a shade over seven hours, faced 316 balls and hit 18 fours anda six. For North Zone, Nehra, Sodhi, Chopra and Navdeep Singh took twowickets each.When North Zone batted a second time, Ashu Dani and skipper Rathourput on 42 runs for the first wicket before the former was held byKapoor off Raju for 12. Rathour (45) and Rajiv Nayyar (12) werebatting at stumps.