Duleep Trophy: North in final after spin of coin decides rain-marred semi

Kochi: A spin of coin sent the Harbhajan Singh-led North Zone into the Duleep trophy final after their semifinal match against East Zone ended in a draw due to bad weather and soggy field conditions on the fifth and reserve day here today. With no first innings lead to look at due to relentless rain on the fourth day and soggy conditions on the reserve fifth day, luck sided with North Zone today when the coin was used to pick the winner. [caption id=“attachment_1171285” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Harbhajan Singh is captaining North Zone in the Duleep Trophy. AFP[/caption] North Zone will clash against South Zone in the final here from October 17 to 21. No play was possible on the entire fourth day or the reserved fifth day of the match. North Zone, after opting to bat, declared their first innings at 591 for eight and in reply East reached 32 for one at stumps on day three. With the fourth day’s play washed out, there was a chance for a result on the fifth day but there was no play possible today as well. Having lost a lot of sessions due to bad weather and outfield, there was no way a first innings lead could have been decided through play. After the match was called off by the umpires following a number of inspections today, it was a matter of pure luck as the fate of the teams was be decided by the toss of coin. The coin landed in North Zone skipper Harbhajan’s favour. Earlier in the day, there was a shower and the two umpires – Pashchim Pathak and Suresh Shastri – decided to have an inspection at 11.00 am. The duo inspected the ground at the alloted time for the second time but were still not happy with the adjoining areas close to the square. They took a good look of the entire ground and decided to have one more inspection after lunch at 1:00pm. A third inspection resulted in umpires deciding to check the field yet again at 2:30pm. Finally, the match was called off after 2.30pm. PTI