BENGALURU, July 5: Cheteswar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav failed to put up a special show against Central Zone on the first day of Duleep Trophy semifinals at KSCA Ovals ground here on Wednesday.
Sarfaraz Khan also flopped with the bat as West Zone ended the day at 216/8 in 90 overs, with Shivam Mavi running riot with the ball for Central Zone, grabbing four wickets.
Atit Seth scripted a valiant 74-run knock to bring West Zone Zone on track after they were struggling at 65/5 in 32.5 overs
Finding himself out of reckoning for India, Pujara was looking to script yet another tale of valour for his side, but could manage only 28 runs in 102 balls.
Looking poised for a long haul, Pujara was caught in the slips by Amandeep Khare off Mavi. Suryakumar also lost his wicket cheaply, scoring just 7 runs, failing yet again to replicate his white-ball exploits in the longer format. Sarfaraz and Prithvi Shaw also are sailors in the same boat, but managed to score a duck and 26, respectively.
West Zone captain Priyank Panchal and Shaw made a steady start, stitching 43 runs for the opening stand. Panchal departed for 13, trapped in front by Yash Thakur. Het Patel was the fifth wicket to fall off Avesh Khan after scoring five runs.
Atit and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja’s 73-run partnership for the 7th wicket revived West Zone’s innings after an impressive show with the ball from Mavi. At stumps, CT Gaja and A Nagwaswalla were batting on 13 and 5, respectively.
In the other semifinals played at Chinnaswamy Stadium, North Zone were bundled out for 198, but their bowlers managed to grab four South Zone wickets, leaving them precariously placed at 63/4 with India discard Mayank Agarwal batting on 37. An hour’s play was lost in the final session due to rain.
All-rounder Harshir Rana was the star of the day, who helped North Zone get closer to 200 runs after they were struggling at 123/7. He then charged in and first castled South Zone skipper Hanuma Vihari (0) and then trapped Ricky Bhui (0) plumb in front off back-to-back balls.
Prior to it, medium pacer Baltej Singh scalped B Sai Sudharsan for nine, caught by skipper Jayant Yadav, and then Ravikumar Samarth (1) who was snapped by Prashant Chopra.
Vihari won the toss and put North Zone into bat, and new-ball bowler Vidwath Kaverappa delivered, using the cloudy and windy conditions at Chinnaswamy, who snapped five 5 wickets for 28 runs.
North Zone were reduced to 18/3 inside 14 overs, losing openers Dhruv Shorey (11) and Prashant Chopra (5) in quick succession. Ankit Kalsi (2) edged one behind the stumps.
Prabhsimran Singh and Ankit Kumar, stitched a 79-run stand for the fourth wicket, to bail out North Zone. After Prabhsimran was removed by medium pacer KV Sasikanth for 49, four wickets fell in clumps with an addition of just 47 runs.
At 144/8, North Zone were under tremendous pressure, but Rana and Vaibhav Arora (23) added 29 for the 9th wicket, while Arora and Baltej (2) added another 25 for the last wicket. These runs proved too crucial for North Zone, considering the final outcome of the day. (UNI)
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