‘Veervaar ke din Sai baba ki kripa toh hogi hi’ – Fans react as Prithvi Shaw smashes half-century in Duleep Trophy 2023 final

West Zone vs South Zone are clashing against each other in the Duleep Trophy 2023 final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The contest kicked off on Wednesday, July 12 where West Zone skipper Priyank Panchal won the toss and elected to bowl first and the decision proved right as they wrapped up the South Zone on the score of just 213 runs.

Meanwhile, West Zone opening batter Prithvi Shaw displayed a brilliant batting performance and smashed a half-century on the 2nd day of the match. The 23-year-old batter completed his fifty off 73 deliveries but got out on 65 runs which came off 101 balls, including 9 fours. This knock will help him boost his confidence as he is suffering from his bad form for a while.

The Duleep Trophy 2023’s first semifinal between West Zone and Central Zone took place last week at the KSCA Ground in Alur. Shaw, who was dreadfully out of form during the Indian Premier League 2023 earlier this year, struggled to make much of an impact with the bat in the Duleep Trophy’s semifinal. He only managed to score 26 and 25 runs over the course of the two innings.

Brilliant bowling performance by West Zone 

Talking about the match, batting first, South Zone’s top-order batted really well, however, the middle-order batters couldn’t take advantage of the start given by the top-order batters. Skipper Hanuma Vihari led from the front and scored 63 runs, which included 9 fours. West Zone’s leg-spinner Shams Mulani bowled really well and picked up 3 wickets. 

Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chintan Gaja and Arzan Nagwaswalla picked up 2 wickets each and helped the team to restrict the opponent to a short total. Apart from them, Atit Sheth also picked up a wicket. Coming to bat, South Zone lost an early wicket as skipper Panchal went back to the pavilion on the score of just 11 runs.

However, later, Shaw and Harvik Desai put up a decent partnership. Both set the foundation for the upcoming batters to score big but that didn’t happen as they kept losing wickets on a regular interval of time. They are now 114 runs after losing 4 wickets before the Tea break on Day 2 with Cheteshwar Pujara on the crease.

Here’s how fans reacted: