Ankit and Andre’s rearguard delays Central’s victory charge

Ankit Sharma (99, 168B, 13×4, 1×6) and Andre Siddartha (not 84, 190B, 7×4) made an incredible return to the south region, but a part of late wickets allowed the central region to hold a strong hold on proceedings.

On the fourth day of the Duleep Trophy Summit at BCCI Coa Ground (1), Ankit and Andre batted for about four hours to create nervousness at the central camp.

Facing an innings necklace at 222 for six, Ankit and Andre provided dogsed resistance for 55 overs, assigned an impossible lead of 52 runs in the south.

All this changed when Ankit was rejected. After blocking some delivery from left-arm spinner Kumar Karthikeya, Ankit lost the conspiracy and put a spoon to a flight ball for mid-wicket.

The long wait for the Central for one wicket ended, and a few overs later, South was rejected to 426.

On Monday, Central has an easy task to knock a target of 65 runs.

The expectations of South to claim a draw or even fight for a win were raised when Ankit and Andre placed the 192-run on the seventh-wicket stand. Ankit, who made his senior debut for Madhya Pradesh, but now does his business for Pondicherry, showed positive intentions.

Andre Siddharth’s partnership with Ankit helped the South Zone to increase the resistance of a dog. , Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

Tamil Nadu teenager Andre, put his head down only one year in his first class career and closed the shop. With a cool mind and comfortable conduct, the young saw perfectly comfortable in a hard setting.

As the hours passed, the central team gradually lost faith. Captain Silver Patidar went to the defensive, spread the ground and invited the easy single. Ankit and Andre made for damage done in the morning season.

R. Saharan (67), Ricky Bhui (45), Mohammad Azharuddin (27) and Salman Nizar (12) all threw their wickets to up their wickets.

Souran, in particular, will be disappointed to fall while trying to force the speed, delivering a delivery from outside to the deep square-legs.

Score: South region 149 and 426 in 121 overs (Mohit Kale 38, R. Smaran 67, Ricky Bhui 45, Andre Siddha 84, Ankit Sharma 99, Kumar Kartikeya 4/110, Sampathy Jain 3/130) vs. Central Zone 511.