In reply to South Zone’s mammoth first innings score of 600, West Zone were trailing by 444 runs with four wickets in hand in the first innings at stumps on Day 3 of their Duleep Trophy match at Chepauk.

Earlier, South Zone declared their innings for 600 before the bowlers ran through West Zone’s top and middle-order to leave them on 156 for six at the end of day’s play. After chipping in with 58 not-out, Malolan Rangarajan returned to give SZ their first wicket by sending back Wasim Jaffer for 11. Aditya Waghmode and Ankit Bawne then added 82 for the second wicket before Abhinav Mukund struck to dismiss the former. Although Bawne continued to valiantly anchor the innings and remained unbeaten on 62, he lost partners in quick succession.

South Zone used as many as nine bowlers to send the opposition on the back foot. While Rangarajan finished the day with three wickets in the bag, Mukund took two and Aushik Srinivas picked one.

Brief scores:

At the end of Day 3: South Zone 1st innings 600/9 decl. in 171.1 overs (M Rangarajan 58*, R Dhruv 3/183); West Zone 1st innings 156/6 in 76 overs (A Bawane 62*, A Waghmode 57, M Rangarajan 3/50, A Mukund 2/5)

At the end of Day 2: South Zone 1st innings 553/7 in 152 overs (M Pandey 213, B Aparajith 212, M Vahora 2/36)

At the end of Day 1: South Zone 1st innings 213/3 in 54 overs (B Aparajith 93*, M Pandey 81*)