BENGALURU: Abid Mushtaq and Arshdeep Singh picked up eight wickets between them to restrict West Zone on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy encounter between West and North at the BCCI's CoE premises in the outskirts of Bengaluru on Monday.

After Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande had picked up four wickets each on Day 1 of the quarterfinals, Monday's was the continuation of a theme where ball dominated the bat in pleasant conditions for cricket. 

At the end of the day's play, North had their noses slightly in front as they were leading by 171 runs but they had already lost four second innings wickets, including that of Yash Dhull and Ayush Doseja. 

However, Ayush Badoni could take the game away on the third morning if he stays in for any length of time.

Day Two began with Musheer Khan employing a lot of patience but wickets kept falling at the other end. The first one to go was Shivalik Sharma, dismissed by Mushtaq. One of the heroes of Jammu & Kashmir's Ranji triumph early this year, the left-arm spinner is a known face in the domestic circuit.

In fact, he was briefly a part of Australia's touring side in 2023 as he had the capacity to ape Ravindra Jadeja's line and length. He had sent down a lot of deliveries to the likes of Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja during that tour when he was with them. 

Just before that series, he had picked up eight in an innings against Vidarbha. His red-ball exploits has also earned him playing and behind-the-scenes gigs at IPL sides, including when he was signed up as a net bowler at Chennai Super Kings.

Staying in 2023, there was a specific reason why Mushtaq was invited by Cricket Australia. He likes to always target the pads and the stumps. So, it wasn't really a surprise that four of the five wickets he picked up across Sunday and Monday were either bowler or leg-before. 

After Shivalik fell, the seasoned Ruturaj Gaikwad and Urvil Patel, colleagues at CSK, were also dismissed leg-before by Mushtaq's craft. Between them, the pair scored seven runs off 20 balls. Meanwhile, at the other end, Musheer had buckled down to play a very un-Musheer like innings. He knew he had no choice but to graft and grind.

And he did both in the company of Shams Mulani as the pair began at repair job from 5/70. A batter blessed with flair, the Mumbaikar was happy to play the waiting game. However, he was removed by Anshul Kamboj, another leg-before, for a 126-ball 31. 

After that stand was broken, West lost their way before being bundled out for 187. On an already wearing wicket, Mulani and Kotian wrested back some of the lost initiative as they picked up two wickets each before close.

In CoEs Ground-2, East Zone were on the road to an outright win when stumps were called. North East Zone, bowled out for a paltry 111 in reply to 467, had been made to follow on.

Brief scores: North Zone 251 and 107/4 in 21 ovs (Badoni 39 n.o, Samad 30, Mulani 2/34, Kotian 2/22) vs West Zone 187 in 65.4 ovs (Mulani 52, Musheer 31, Mushtaq 5/39, Arshdeep 3/53); East Zone 467 in 112.5 ovs (Shahbaz 167, Anukul 37, Choudhary 3/102, Jotin 3/64, Konthoujam 2/92) vs North East Zone 111 in 42.5 ovs (Bhatewara 32, Sarkar 5/20, Shahbaz 3/20) and 7/0 in 1 over.