South Zone edge out North, face West in final

Tamil Nadu's R Sai Kishore came up with a splendid all-round show as South Zone trumped North Zone by two wickets on a rain-interrupted but thrilling last day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final here on Saturday.

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In the final, South will take on defending champions West Zone in a repeat of the 2022 title clash.

Chasing 215 in overcast conditions, South Zone were in the driver's seat with Mayank Agarwal (54; 57b) and skipper Hanuma Vihari's (43; 42b) playing counter-attacking knocks.

But the pace trio of Harshit Rana (3/84), Baltej Singh (2/47) and Vaibhav Arora (2/46) gave their side timely breakthroughs, while North skipper Jayant Yadav grabbed the prized scalp of Agarwal.

There were two rain interruptions, the longest was for about two hours just before the final session, when South required 32 runs with Ricky Bhui (34; 29b) and Tilak Varma (25; 19b) going great guns.