Duleep Trophy final: Vidwath Kaverappa's four-wicket haul gives South Zone edge

South Zone pacers reduced a strong West Zone batting lineup to 129 for 7 to help their team regain some of the lost ground on the second day of the Duleep Trophy final here on ThursdayWest still remain 84 runs short of South Zonersquos first innings total of 213Once Prithvi Shaw and Harvik Desai took West to 97 for 1 they were poised for a romp and the conditions too remained a tad sunnyShaw was quite a sight during that phase The 23yearold blunted the South pacers in his inimitable way producing a slew of sparkling shotsVidwath Kaverappa pitched the ball on his driving arc a wowing cover drive followedVasuki Koushik marginally overpitched a delivery and Shaw produced a straight drive that is now patented to the Mumbai school of batting carried over by Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin TendulkarVidwaths delivery that was slanted to Shaws pads so slightly met with a delectable flick an uncoiling wrist giving it power and directionThe three shots were enough to revalidate the class this young man possessesIt was clear that the South bowlers will have to conjure something exceptional to snap the second wicket alliance Perhaps the 65minute rain break that arrived in the second session gave South a chance to take a step back and revisit their strategiesAlso Read Duleep Trophy final West Zone bowlers reign supreme restrict South to 1827 on Day 1Their bowlers took to the field with a marked difference in approach post that breakVysakh Vijayakumar came from around the wicket and peppered both Shaw and Harvik with shortpitched ballsWest batters looked to have caught unawares and their reply was jitteryShaw a reluctant player of the upper cut by his own admission was forced to play precisely that shot by Vysakh But the ball was too close to his body and there was not enough room for its executionThe rather halfhearted shot neither had elevation nor the distance and it ended in the hands of Vidwath at third man He made a delightful 65 off 101 balls with 9 hits to the fenceVidwath was a beneficiary of this tactic at the other end as batters tried to score off him Unlike his partner Vidwath resorted to bowling fuller lengthsSuryakumar Yadav seemed to have preprogrammed his mind to play the T20 brand of cricket here Suryakumar could have got out to Vysakh but Sai Kishore failed to grab an uppish pull of him at midwicketHowever his stay ended very soon The Mumbaikar could not negate a Vidwath delivery that reared from just short of the good lengthVidwath soon trapped Sarfaraz Khan plumb in front for zero with a full delivery as the batter played all over itOnce half of the batting unit was dismissed it was left to Cheteshwar Pujara to hold the West innings together and get as close as to Souths totalBut the man who has scripted several escape stories failed to enact one this time R Samarth held on to Pujaras flick off Vidwath as Wests ship sank furtherWith PTI inputs