Sarandeep Singh staked his claim for the spinner's spot in the Indian team after propelling North Zone to a dramatic 21-run victory over West Zone in the Duleep Trophy cricket match in Dharamshala on Monday.
The Punjab bowler grabbed four for 99 as North skittled out West Zone for 277 on the fourth and final day to advance to the final.
Amit Bhandari (2 for 41) and Dinesh Mongia (2 for 46) too came up with valuable contributions.
Opening batsman Vinayak Mane played a gallant knock of 127 not out and shared a 103-run third wicket partnership with Jacob Martin (50) but could not prevent West from crumbling under pressure.
Resuming at 92 for two, West looked relaxed about their run chase until Martin was caught by Amit Bhandari off Sarandeep at 148.
After the dismissal of Ramesh Powar (12), Mane and skipper Sairaj Bahutule put on 48 runs for the fifth wicket.
The association came to an end when Bahutule (22) was run out at 213. From then, the match started slipping out of West's hands.
West thereafter lost three wickets for just 12 runs as the scoreline reached 255 for seven.
Rakesh Patel (25) then provided some late thrust and added 43 crucial runs for the eighth wicket.
After Patel's fall at 268 for 8, West were left needing 31 runs for victory, but both the tail-enders, Munaf Patel and Siddarth Trivedi, surrendered meekly to gift North a remarkable win.
Scoreboard
North Zone (1st innings): 279
West Zone (1st innings): 172
North Zone (2nd innings): 191
West Zone (2nd innings):
D Jadhav b Gagandeep Singh 1
V Mane not out 127
H Kanitkar c Chopra b Sarandeep Singh 16
J Martin c Bhandari b Sarandeep Singh 50
R Powar c Dharmani b Sarandeep Singh 12
S Bahutule run out 22
S Parab lbw b Mongia 5
P Patel c sub b Sarandeep Singh 1
R Patel c Ratra b Bhandari 25
M Patel c Sarandeep Singh b Mongia 4
S Trivedi b Bhandari 0
Extras: 14
Total: (all out in 95.2 overs) 277
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-45, 3-148, 4-165, 5-217, 6-224, 7-225, 8-268, 9-276.
Bowling: Amit Bhandari 11.2-2-41-2, Gagandeep Singh 17-8-34-1, Sarandeep Singh 34-4-99-4, Joginder Sharma 14-1-49-0, Dinesh Mongia 19-5-46-2.
