South looking to set record straight against Central

BANGALORE: In many ways, the South Zone team's Duleep Trophy campaigns have been much like that of Tamil Nadu's in the Ranji Trophy. Always a side with potential, most times teeming with talent but with no real results to show for the same.
That they last won the Duleep Trophy title as many as 13 years ago, in the 1995-96 season, should therefore not come as too much of a shock.
VVS Laxman, the South Zone skipper, is obviously aware of the poor record in the past and seemed intent on setting it right, starting with the quarter-final against the Md Kaif-led Central Zone, beginning on Thursday at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Barring one or two of the usual quota-based selections and at least one please-those-in-power pick, Laxman does have the side to pull it off not just in this match but in the next two rounds as well, provided of course the talent on paper counts for something on the field too.
With five of the probable top six batsmen having international experience, none more so than a certain Rahul Dravid, and a new ball attack that can at any point of time step up for national duty again, what with S Sreesanth and L Balaji raring to make a comeback, South certainly have the personnel to go all the way in the tournament.
Will they is a different question and some of the answers may lie with Central, who may start second best but are well capable of causing an upset, the good form of batsman such as Shivkant Shukla, Yere Goud and Kaif himself, promising much.
Where Central are streets ahead is in the spin department, though the pitch here does not provide much cause for cheer for the slow men.
Laxman, in fact, called the bluff right away when he dismissed the green covering, saying that he expected the pitch to be slow to start with and get progressively slower and lower.
This, of course, means that both teams will depend on their faster men to for reverse swing.