The final will be a battle of attrition between both the teams
South Zone skipper Vinay Kumar
New Delhi: The spotlight will be on two batsmen in particular Naman Ojha of Central Zone and South Zone’s Robin Uthappa when the two sides lock horns in the final of the Duleep Trophy that gets under way at the Feroz Shah Kotla here from Wednesday. With South handing out an innings and 118-run hammering to East Zone in the semi-finals at Lahli in Haryana near here and Central edging a powerful North Zone on first innings at Mohali, the stage is set for what should be a battle of attrition.
This is the 26th time these teams are meeting in the competition with South holding an edge with their nine wins to seven by Central Zone. However, Piyush Chawla’s young side have the firepower to counter the wily R. Vinay Kumar’s South Zone even as the semi-finals’ centurions, Ojha and Uthappa, look set to lead the batting charge of their respective units. With the Kotla track bearing a distinct green tinge, it will at least for the first day or so also be a showdown between the fast men on either side. Historically, tough this is a pitch that has assisted spin Anil Kumble’ 10-for came here after all so Chawla, Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha will also have a significant say.
Both teams will be missing key players who will be doing India A duty in Mumbai against the Sri Lankans including Karn Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav for Central, and Stuart Binny, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey and Sanju Samson for South.
The Teams
South Zone: R. Vinay Kumar (C), Robin Uthappa, Lokesh Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Baba Aparajith, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pragyan Ojha, H.S. Sharath, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyash Gopal, R. Malolan V. Jagadeesh, R. Prasanna, Ravi Kiran.
Central Zone: Piyush Chawla (C) Faiz Fazal, Jalaj Saxena, Robin Bist, Naman Ojha (wk), Ashok Menaria, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Ali Murtaza, Akshay Wakhare, Ishwar Pandey, Pankaj Singh, Arindam Ghosh, Amit Mishra, Shalabh Srivastava.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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