One team had only one regular player missing in Harbhajan Singh. The other team consisted of an almost entirely second strength squad. Given this background, perhaps South Zone's defeat at the hands of North Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal at Agartala was along expected lines. Indeed, one must perhaps give South Zone credit for not going down tamely.

On the eve of the match, there were indications of a close contest. For South Zone have repeatedly risen to the occasion in the competition even with a depleted side. Moreover, even though they had lost the entire first eleven to national duty with players representing the country both in Australia and the West Indies, they still seemed to have the players to run North Zone close. In the first place the experience of Azharuddin, Robin Singh, Sunil Joshi and Venkatpathi Raju was a comforting thought. And then the other players like Aashish Kapoor, Tilak Naidu, Sarath, Mahesh, Mansoor Ali Khan, Nandakishore and Shiraguppi had all run into form.

The last minute withdrawal of Azharuddin was a major blow. Without the presence of both the side's best batsman and the skipper, South Zone were further handicapped. And once North Zone won the toss and batted first, it was clear that South Zone would be up against it.

The North Zone cricketers had an advantage in that they had played the maximum number of Ranji Trophy games. With the teams having completed their fixtures, the players had been match hardened. Moreover they had run into top form with players Ashu Dani, skipper Rathour, Dharmani, Shewag and Rajiv Nayyar getting tall scores. Among the bowlers Ashish Nehra and Navdeep Singh had a bagful of wickets. Their main strength however was in their batting and they proved it by scoring 589 with Shewag getting a double hundred, Nayyar a century and the two sharing a record fifth wicket partnership for the competition.

Frequently in the Duleep Trophy tournament, such totals have not been an insurance against defeat, given the sort of flat tracks the matches have been played on. But North Zone were too professional a side to let South Zone into the game and once Nehra broke through to have them at two for two at the end of the first over, the match was over as a contest. Thereafter only the margin of South Zone's defeat was being debated and it is to the credit of Naidu, Madanagopal, Sarath and Joshi that they kept the South Zone innings going till the fourth evening before they were all out for 424. After that, of course only the formalities remained to be gone through.

A good performance in the Duleep Trophy competition has often been a ticket to the national squad. But there is very little that the selectors would have learnt from this game, except that Shewag and Sarath deserve to be watched and that Joshi at the domestic level still remains a high calibre all rounder.

North play holders Central at Guwahati and West meet East at Calcutta in the semifinals from December 9.

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