After piling on 600 runs in the first innings, South Zone bowled West Zone out for 287 on the final day to post a win on the basis of their first innings lead at Chepauk.

Earlier, after resuming play on the fourth day, Ankit Bawne continued to anchor West Zone’s first innings, but with just four wickets in hand there was little that could be done in face of the mammoth SZ total. The No.3 bat was left stranded on 115 as he ran out of partners at the other end. Lower-order bat Rakesh Dhruve was the first to depart after contributing 53, before being sent back by Aushik Srinivas. Malolan Rangarajan then followed up with the wickets of Murtuja Vohara and Jaydev Unadkat, while Baba Aparajith removed Akshay Darekar to end West Zone’s first innings.

In reply, South Zone made 44 for the loss of one wicket, before the match was called off.

In the second match, East Zone will take on North Zone in Kochi from 10th to 13th October.

Brief scores:

At the end of Day 4: West Zone 1st innings 287 all-out in 133 overs (A Bawne 115*, R Dhruve 53, M Rangarajan 5/101); South Zone 2nd innings 44/1 decl. in 22.5 overs (PA Reddy 25*, R Dhruve 1/14)

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 innings156/6 in 76 overs (A Bawne 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 innings213/3 in 54 overs (B Aparajith 93*, M Pandey 81*)