Cricket fans were vividly heard cheering the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) chants after South Zone triumphed against West Zone by 75 runs in the Duleep Trophy final at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
On Day 5 of the Duleep Trophy final, South Zone bowled out West Zone for 222 to defend 298 runs. Vasuki Kaushik (4 for 36) and Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore (4 for 57) were the pick of the South Zone bowlers as they managed to keep the defending champions at bay.
To celebrate South Zone's Duleep Trophy win, the local fans encored the chants of "RCB…RCB" - ones that are heard from the hardcore fandom of Royal Challengers Bangalore during their IPL matches.
Bengaluru-based sports journalist Manuja Verappa captured a short clip of the scene and posted the same on her Twitter handle. Check out the video here:
How South Zone held the edge over West Zone in Duleep Trophy final?
The crux of the Duleep Trophy final was the battle between South Zone bowlers and the West Zone batters. It was the young Karnataka pace troika of Koushik, Vyshak Vijakykumar, and Vidhwath Kaverappa who got the better of a formidable batting order comprising Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan, and Priyank Panchal.
Despite captain Panchal's gallant efforts to keep West Zone in the hunt of the chase, South Zone bowlers showed enough discipline in their lengths to find regular breakthroughs.
Hanuma Vihari was spot on with his challenging field settings for the likes of Pujara and Panchal. Vihari, who is said to complete a move from Andhra to Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket, perhaps played his farewell game for South Zone.
Kaverappa, who inspired a batting collapse of West Zone with a phenomenal spell of 7 for 53, was adjudged as Player of the Match. The 24-year-old picked 15 wickets at 11.93 in the Duleep Trophy 2023 and thus bagged the Player of the Series as well.
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