Shami bowled 11 overs for 17 runs, and South Zone are 267 short of avoiding the follow-on

South Zone closed day three of the Duleep Trophy final on 242 for 6. That is 466 behind, with four wickets left and 267 more runs needed before East Zone lose the option of making them bat again.

Shami bowled 11 overs and conceded 17 runs

Mohammed Shami’s figures at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday read 11-4-17-2. On a pitch where East Zone had just scored 708 at 4.34 an over, he went at 1.54.

He had Shaik Rasheed lbw for 27 and then found the edge of Ravichandran Smaran on 23, East Zone reviewing an original not-out call in the 54th over and getting it overturned. Mukesh Kumar took the other two, Ricky Bhui for 1 in the sixth over and Devdutt Padikkal for 62, and his 12 overs cost 36.

South Zone have the other set of numbers from the same square. Mohammed Siraj bowled 25 overs at East Zone for 140 runs and took nothing.

Padikkal got to 50 off 65 balls, Tilak Varma needed 123

Padikkal was the one South Zone batter who looked untroubled by any of it. He reached his fifty from 65 balls with four fours, and by the time he was caught by a substitute fielder off Mukesh he had 62 from 104. That wicket fell in the 36th over, ten balls after Rasheed had gone. Two wickets for three runs, and South Zone were 129 for 4 in an innings that began 708 behind.

Tilak Varma has answered that with the slowest fifty of the innings and the most useful. The South Zone captain is 56 not out from 133 balls with five fours, and his sixth-wicket stand with Shreyas Gopal was worth 66 before Gopal was caught and bowled by Md Kounain Quraishi in the 80th over for 26.

Narayan Jagadeesan made 32 from 42 with six fours and was caught by Abhimanyu Easwaran off Shikhar Mohan, which is the sort of start South Zone could not afford to waste. Chama Milind is with Tilak on 2.

East Zone used seven bowlers, and Kishan did not keep

Kumar Kushagra took the gloves from the first over of the innings, with Ishan Kishan having retired hurt on 250 on day two before returning to bat on to 270. Kishan was on the field, and he bowled an over that cost eight runs. Kushagra took two catches behind the stumps.

Quraishi did the holding work with 31 overs for 77 and the wicket of Gopal. Abhijit Sarkar went for 34 from eight, Mohan took 1 for 52, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s four overs cost ten. Seven bowlers in 80 overs is a captain with a large lead and no reason to hurry.

South Zone’s best session was the first one

South Zone were 115 for 2 at lunch from 30 overs. They lost three wickets for 61 in the 26 overs to tea, then added 66 for one in the last 24. The morning was the only session in which they scored faster than three an over, and East Zone took two wickets in it anyway.

MD Nidheesh, Tripurana Vijay and Siraj are the three left to bat, which is not a tail built to save a match. South Zone need 509 to avoid the follow-on, and there are two days of the scheduled five to play in Chennai.

Follow the Duleep Trophy final as it finishes