West Zone are virtually through to the Duleep Trophy final. On the fourth day of their semifinal against East Zone at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta on Sunday, they bowled out the home team for 255 runs in their first innings. Despite getting a lead of 345 runs, they did not enforce the follow on and opted to bat again. Their second innings score of 174 for one has made their entry into the final certain.

West Zone did not take long to dismiss East Zone when play resumed. Overnight 208 for five, East Zone lost the five remaining wickets for the addition of only 47 runs in 13 overs. Their last bastion of strength Saba Karim fell without adding to last evening's score of 60. But even as Siddiqui and Kulkarni cut through the tail with clinical precision, Sukhbinder Singh, the other overnight batsman stood firm. He remained unbeaten with 51 after having faced 107 balls and hitting eight fours and a six.

In their second innings, West Zone were again a good start by openers Wasim Jaffar and Cecil Williams who put on 71 runs in 30.4 overs. Williams, who got a century in the first innings, was out for 41. Jaffar (75) and AV Kale (55) then added 103 runs for the unbroken second wicket in 43.2 overs with West Zone enjoying a huge lead of 519 runs at the end of the penultimate day.

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