Legendary Sunil Gavaskar questioned East Zone for not going for an outright win in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone. The summit clash ended in a draw, but East Zone were declared winners on the basis of first innings lead.
East Zone posted a gargantuan total of 708 runs in the first innings after captain Ishan Kishan scored a magnificent knock of 270 runs. Subsequently, South Zone was bowled out for 336, conceding a first innings lead of 372 runs.
East Zone batted again and posted 388-7 in the second innings before both teams mutually agreed to end the contest. Gavaskar questioned East Zone for unnecessarily prolonging their second innings.
Sunil Gavaskar said on Mid-Day, “The disappointing part was that East Zone did not go for an outright win and instead prolonged their second innings unnecessarily. That both skippers agreed to end the game earlier than scheduled also doesn’t sit well. If the game was to be stopped early, then why wasn’t it stopped at lunchtime itself, when it was clear that in the two sessions remaining, South Zone was never going to chase down a score of more than 650 runs.”
Gavaskar praised East Zone for winning the trophy despite not having a lot of big players in the team.
“It’s a good sign for Indian cricket to see a team with just one big name in batting and one big name in bowling lift the trophy. What it shows is that if a team is well-led and combines well, then they can win matches and trophies.”
The Little Master revealed the reason behind India’s struggle to take 20 wickets in a Test match on a good pitch.
“This business of the first innings lead being enough, is one of the main reasons India struggle to take 20 wickets on good pitches. How does a team learn to take 20 wickets if they don’t bowl in two innings in a domestic game? India huffed and puffed on the last day of the second Test in Sri Lanka and couldn’t take the last four wickets for a victory,” said Gavaskar (via the aforementioned source).
Indian players will be seen in action in the T20I series against Afghanistan.
