Sarfaraz Khan’s night practice helps him get maiden Duleep Trophy century

The Ajinkya Rahane-led team are in the driver’s seat as they need only four wickets to clinch the trophy for the first time since 2009-10

West Zone’s two Mumbaikars —opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (265, 30x4, 4x6) and Sarfaraz Khan (127 not out, 11x4, 2x6) frustrated South Zone on Day Four of the Duleep Trophy final at Coimbatore on Saturday.

After conceding a first innings lead of 57 runs, West bounced back and declared their second innings at 585-4. Their pacers — Jaydev Unadkat and Atit Sheth — along with left-arm spinner Shams Mulani, who claimed two wickets apiece, did not disappoint the team management as South were struggling at 154 for six at stumps.

Also Read: Duleep Trophy: West set Central 501-run target

The Ajinkya Rahane-led team are in the driver’s seat as they need only four wickets to clinch the trophy for the first time since 2009-10.

It will be a daunting task for Hanuma Vihari’s team to score 375 runs on the final day today. However, their opener Rohan Kannummal fought hard, scoring 93 with the help of 14 fours and one six. “We will win this game tomorrow [Sunday] before lunch,” a confident Sarfaraz told Sunday mid-day.

Speaking about his maiden Duleep Trophy hundred, he said: “Though the wicket was tough in the first innings—it was like a Kanga League pitch — I was expecting to get a century in the first innings itself, but got out [on 34] while playing a sweep shot. However, I was determined to get a big knock in the second innings. Actually, I was planning to score a  double century and more, but unfortunately, we declared the innings.”

Also Read: Duleep Trophy: Het Patel resurrects West after Rahane, Shreyas fail

Prior to the ongoing final, Sarfaraz, 24, played a couple of four-day games for India ‘A’ against New Zealand ‘A’ in Bangalore where he scored 36, 0 and 63. However, he worked hard with his dad and coach Naushad, before heading to Coimbatore. “My dad came to Bangalore, where I had a couple of indoor net sessions after the third and fourth day’s play [on September 17 and 18] against NZ. As I wanted to play around 300 balls daily, he gave me throwdowns for a couple of hours on those nights. I think that too helped me score another ton,” revealed Sarfaraz, who scored 982 runs from six games in the 2021-22 Ranji season.

Brief scores
West 270 & 585-4d (Y Jaiswal 265, S Khan 127*, H Patel 51*; R Sai Kishore 2-157, K Gowtham 2-235) v South 327 & 154-6 (R Kunnummal 93; S Mulani 2-24,  J Unadkat 2-26, A Sheth 2-29)   

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