East Zone 278 (M Tiwary 100*) and 281 for 7 dec (S Tiwary 109, Chatterjee 99, Kulkarni 4-28) beat West Zone 322 (Bawne 105, Yusuf 73, Dutta 5-60) and 135 (Mohanty 4-44, Dinda 3-40) by 102 runs
File photo - Ashok Dinda claimed 3 for 40 AFP
Ashok Dinda ripped through the top order and Basant Mohanty took care of the tail as East Zone crushed West Zone by 102 runs on the final morning of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Rohtak.
West Zone began on 12 for 1 in their pursuit of 238 but lasted less than 40 overs into the day to be dismissed for 135. Dinda bowled Aditya Tare for 11 in the seventh over of the day and five overs later Laxmi Shukla jolted West Zone further by having their captain Cheteshwar Pujara caught behind for 9.
East Zone kept chipping away at the wickets and West Zone were never able to form a decent partnership, the highest stand being 28 for the fifth wicket between Parthiv Patel and Suryakumar Yadav. Parthiv made 39, the highest score of the innings, before becoming Dinda's third victim.
Yusuf Pathan was the last of the recognized batsmen to depart, going caught behind to Mohanty for 14. The Odisha medium-pacer took the remaining three wickets to finish with 4 for 44. West Zone's second innings had lasted 44 overs, which was also the lead they had taken in the first innings.
East Zone will take on South Zone in the second semi-final in Rohtak from October 22, while Central Zone will meet North Zone in the first semi-final in Mohali.