South Zone enjoy home advantage against West Zone in Duleep Trophy final | Cricket News – Times of India

BENGALURU: Ignominiously dropped for the two-Test series against the West Indies, Cheteshwar Pujara decided to do what he usually does — hunker down and grind it out in domestic cricket.
The 103-Test veteran, who at 35 appears to be close to the twilight of his international career, headed straight for the Duleep Trophy and casually smashed his 60th first-class century against Central Zone in the semifinal. He has worked as if there is no tomorrow in the nets.
On Wednesday, the Saurashtra top-order batter will return to one of his happy hunting grounds — the M Chinnaswamy stadium — the venue of his international debut and considerable domestic success.
Pujara is among the subplots in an intriguing tournament finale which pits traditional rivals West Zone against South — teams which featured in the first final in 1962. The match presents West batters like Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan an opportunity to get among runs, while Suryakumar Yadav continues to be one of their star attractions. Strangely, West have named 38-year-old Kedar Jadhav, as the replacement for a young Yuvraj Dodiya, who was picked to the India ‘A’ squad for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup tournament.

South, who beat North in the semis, too have their fair share of willow-wielders. Home boy Mayank Agarwal, who was adjudged man of the match in the last-four contest, is joined by skipper Hanuma Vihari, seasoned R Samarth, young Thilak Varma and all-rounder Washington Sundar. They also have reinforcements with Goa’s Suryash Prabhudessai coming in for Pradosh Ranjan.
The sun has only made rare appearances in Bengaluru over the past fortnight and with more rain forecast, players running to the confines of the dressing room would be a common sight.
South would like to make the most of the conditions, considering their bowlers are in prime form. The Karnataka pace duo of Vidwath Kaverappa and Vyshak Vijaykumar, made the best use of very familiar conditions to return five-wicket hauls in each innings. Kaverappa, especially, bowled like a dream.
Rather than pace, the 25-year-old banks on line, length and swing and could be lethal in these conditions. Fortifying the pace attack is his state mate V Koushik, who has been drafted in place of Sai Sudarshan. Koushik, will be a great value-add for South, given swing and accuracy are his fortes.
While the contest appears evenly balanced, South have an edge, given their ‘home advantage’. Five players – Agarwal, Samarth, Kaverappa, Vyshak and Koushik – practically live at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
Skipper Vihari admitted the home boys were an added advantage. “They are valuable because they understand the conditions well. Also, they played four home games [in the Ranji Trophy last season] here. They’ve helped in reading the conditions. For example, in the semifinals, there wasn’t much grass on the wicket but there was dampness under the wicket, so they told me better to bowl first. That kind of input is very valuable, especially from Mayank and Samarth, who have played a lot of cricket.”
Having faced the ignominy of a 294-run defeat against the same opponents, Vihari & Co will look to make amends in a bid to win their 14th title in the competition.