Medium-Pacers continued to have a ball on the Wankhede strip. If it was North Zone’s VRV Singh on day one, it was the turn of West’s Siddharth Trivedi to hog the limelight on Wednesday. His six-wicket haul helped West to dismiss North for 340 runs, but could not prevent them from taking a 66-run first innings lead in their Duleep Trophy final.With the visitors tottering at one stage at 274/8, one never expected the lower order to put up a fight to extend North’s total past the 300-mark. Thanks to some typical tailender batting by VRV Singh and Ashok Thakur — they scored 33 each — the lead could prove vital in the context of a result later. VRV, in his swashbuckling style, hammered four fours and a six while Thakur stayed unbeaten, collecting four boundaries in his valuable knock. “The wicket had the bounce and if a bowler pushed himself hard, he was getting good purchase,” stated Trivedi on the condition of the wicket. Resuming at 53/0, North batsmen Aakash Chopra and Shikhar Dhawan failed to add to the overnight total. The Gujarat seamer’s top four scalps included the crucial wicket of skipper Mitthun Manhas (29) at the team total of 97/4 and had put West Zone in a commanding position. However, Rajat Bhatia, who scored a century for Delhi in the Ranji final at the Wankhede, continued in the same vein. Along with Yashpal Singh (59), Bhatia got into the rescue act and made sure that North suffered no further setbacks. With Bhatia slamming nine boundaries and a six, Yashpal smote eight fours and the pair added a crucial 128 runs before Yashpal gave a simple catch to Sandeep Jobanputra. “He (Trivedi) was damn good today and I think we had the opportunity of bowling them out early. We dropped catches that helped them to build on that last-wicket partnership,” said West coach Praveen Amre.When stumps were drawn, West were two for no loss with Wasim Jaffer and Sahil Kukreja at the crease without opening their accounts. Brief scores: West Zone 274 and 2 for 0 trail North Zone 340 (Bhatia 84, Yashpal Singh 59, Trivedi 6-67) by 66 runs.
