West Zone slip but still have a winning chance

VADODARA, February 13: At tea time, the talk revolved around when West Zone should declare to give themselves an outside chance of winning their Duleep Trophy match against England Lions.
Within minutes the decision was taken away from their hands as the wicket, benign for most part of the first three days of the four-day clash, began to take vicious turn.
Monty Panesar and the little-known right arm leg-spinner Adil Rashid shared six wickets between themselves as West Zone, cruising along at 450/4 in reply to England Lions' 355, slid to 494 all out.
It was a great turn of events as at stumps, West Zone, who need an outright victory to enter the final of the tournament, had the Lions ��� 139 runs behind on first innings ��� on the mat at 14 for one in their second innings.
The wicket went to medium pacer Siddharth Trivedi who had Lions skipper and England's first innings hero Michael Yardy leg before for two. West skipper Parthiv Patel has yet to set the spinners on the Lions. With no rain expected here at this time of the year, it will need a near miracle for the English team to survive on a wicket that's throwing up dust with every delivery sent down.
Manhas, Chopra crack unbeaten double tons for North
RAJKOT: North Zone skipper Mithun Manhas scored his maiden double hundred while his Delhi team-mate Aakash Chopra struck an identical unbeaten 205 to put North Zone in a commanding position against East Zone in their four-day Duleep Trophy match on Wednesday.
Manhas and Chopra added 368 runs for the unseparated third wicket as North Zone piled up 459 runs for the loss of just two wickets in 103.5 overs and declared to set East Zone a winning target of 677 runs.