Duleep Trophy 2023 Final: Hanuma Vihari explains why West Zone lost despite Pujara, Shaw, Suryakumar in squad

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South Zone captain Hanuma Vihari has explained why the star-studded West Zone lost despite the presence of Cheteshwar Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav and Sarfaraz Khan among others in the Duleep Trophy 2023 final.

South Zone defended the 298-run target by 75 runs to beat the defending champions on Sunday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. West Zone who were five down for 182 at the end of Day 4, were bundled out for 222.

West Zone captain Priyank Panchal could add only three runs to his total on Day 5 and his side's hope ended with his departure on 95 off 211 balls in the third over of the morning.

Vihari said that he enjoyed captaining the talented South Zone side and also explained why his team toppled a West Zone squad which had several intimidating names in the line-up.

He credited Karnataka pace trio of Vasuki Koushik, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Vidhwath Kaverappa for exploiting the conditions which they were very well aware of. Notably, M Chinnaswamy which was hosting the mega final, is the home ground of Karnataka domestic team. Koushik, Vyshak and Kaverappa had a lot of experience of playing on the surface.

"Yeah! I definitely enjoyed captaincy. When you have a team like that you will enjoy doing captaincy," Hanuma Vihari, who scored 63 and 42 runs, said after South Zone's triumph, as quoted by PTI.

"When you have this kind of bowling attack, captaincy pressure will come down. It was our plan to curtail them to below three runs (per over), and they executed it as the quality bowlers will make the captain's job really easy," said Vihari.

"All three Karnataka fast bowlers who played this match knew the wicket very well. I had said earlier as well that having bowlers who know the conditions is an advantage to us.

''But to be able to put it into use is another thing, all three of them showed their skills. The West Zone bowlers have a lot of quality on paper and to get them out needed special skills and they executed it really well," he added.

Kaverappa finished the Duleep Trophy 2023 as the second-highest wicket-taker. He picked 15 wickets in two matches at an average of 11.93. Vyshak picked nine wickets at an average of 19.32. Koushik played just the final over and dismissed Pujara, Suryakumar Shaw, to run through the West Zone top-order in the second innings.

Later, he dismissed Shams Mulani to break a frustrating six-run partnership off 48 balls. The 30-year-old dismissed Priyank Panchal in the first innings.