The Duleep Trophy marked the start of the 2023/24 Indian domestic season. Central Zone and North Zone won their respective quarter-finals against East Zone and North East to qualify for the semi-finals, while West Zone and South Zone, last year’s finalists, got direct entry to the the top four.

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Central Zone is facing West Zone in Alur, while North Zone is facing South Zone in Bengaluru in the two semi-finals. Here is a round-up of how the India hopefuls performed on day two of the two matches.

Rinku Singh (Central Zone)

48 (69)

Rinku came in early at 26-3 and arrested the collapse with Dhruv Jurel. He kept running out of partners, and was the last man standing from one end. Eight Central Zone batters scored in single digits, and Rinku was the last man out for 48.

Upendra Yadav (Central Zone)

5 (7)

Upendra, the next wicketkeeper in line after KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan in the pecking order for the Indian Test team, had a forgettable outing. He was caught in front of the wicket by Arzan Nagwaswalla for a score of just five.

Arzan Nagwaswalla (West Zone)

14.3-0-74-5

Left-arm seamer Nagwaswalla tore through the cream of the Central Zone batting lineup, picking up 5-74 while sending down 46 percent of the 31.3-over innings. He dismissed five of the top seven Central Zone batters, including their two highest scorers, Dhruv Jurel and Rinku.

Atit Sheth (West Zone)

9-1-27-3

Following through his rescue act with the bat on day one, Sheth partnered Nagwaswalla with the ball to pick three wickets and clean up the Central Zone tail, dismissing Nos. 8, 9, and 10.

Prithvi Shaw (West Zone)

25 (26)

After an ordinary first innings, Shaw got off to a brisk start in the second and hit a flurry of boundaries, but could not carry on to make a big score as he was cleaned up by Yash Thakur for 25. He looked good but has now fluffed his chances in both innings of the semi-final.

Cheteshwar Pujara (West Zone)

50 (103)*

Pujara was his usual, stoic self as he stood his ground at one end as Suryakumar Yadav went berserk at the other. He finished the day not out on 50 off 103 balls with five boundaries to his name. Recently dropped from the Test team, he will like to convert this into a big hundred on day three.

Suryakumar Yadav (West Zone)

52 (58)

‘SKY’ paired with Pujara for the third wicket and stitched a 95-run partnership. He was his usual attacking self as he raced to a nearly run-a-ball fifty, while Pujara kept doing his thing at the other end. He was dismissed by left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar soon after crossing the milestone.

Avesh Khan (Central Zone)

8-1-31-0

Avesh opened the bowling with Shivam Mavi, but was unable to create much impact as he finished the day wicketless.

Mayank Agarwal (South Zone)

76 (115)

Agarwal was the highest scorer for South Zone as he stuck around as the rest of the top- and middle-orders failed. His was the fifth wicket to fall at the score of 145, of which he had scored more than half to give South Zone the platform to get close to parity with North Zone’s first-innings score.

Hanuma Vihari (South Zone)

0 (4)

South Zone captain Vihari had a terrible outing: he was bowled fourth ball by Harshit Rana for a duck.

Tilak Varma (South Zone)

46 (101)

Varma came in at 35-4 and stitched a 110-run partnership with Agarwal for the fifth wicket. While he was patient, he did not miss out on scoring opportunities. He was eventually dismissed by Vaibhav Arora before he managed to reach his fifty.

Washington Sundar (South Zone)

12 (40)

After a quiet outing with the ball on day one, Sundar had a quiet day with the bat. He stuck around for a while but did not going, and was eventually dismissed for 12 by off-spinner Jayant Yadav.