BENGALURU, July 6: Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav, who missed out on their opportunities in the first innings, grabbed it in the second innings, and made fifties on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy semifinal at KSCA Ovals Stadium here on Thursday. When the stumps were drawn, West Zone were in control of the match after reaching 149/3 in their second innings, leading Central Zone by 241 runs. Pujara and Sarfaraz Khan were batting on 50 and 6, respectively. Left-arm medium pacer Arzan Nagaswalla bagged five wickets, helping West to bundle out Central Zone for 128 in reply to West Zone’s first innings score of 220 all out in 92.5 overs.
The West Zone resumed their innings, but could only add four runs to their overnight score. Pacer Shivam Mavi did the damage by adding two more wickets to his yesterday’s four-wicket haul yesterday. Equally terrific was Nagwaswalla for the West, whose impressive spell of 5/74 pulverised Central Zone’s batting lineup. Except Dhruv Jurel (46) and Rinku Singh (48), none of their batsmen reached the double digits. With 92 runs lead from the first innings, West Zone’s top order put up a better performance, though Prithvi Shaw (25) and Priyank Panchal (15) could not make big scores, but scored quickly. Pujara remained unbeaten on 50 off 103 balls with 5 boundaries and Suryakumar smashed 52 off 58 balls with a six and eight boundaries, before he was snapped up by Amandeep Khare off Saurabh Kumar. Both weaved 95 runs for the third wicket in just 24 overs. Brief Scores: West Zone: 220 all out in 92.5 overs (Shivam Mavi 6/44) and 149/3 in 39 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 50 batting, Suryakumar Yadav 52, Sarfaraz Khan batting 6, Saurabh Kumar 2/34). Central Zone: 128 in 31.3 overs (Rinku Singh 48, Dhruv Jurel 46, Arzan Nagwaswalla 5/74). (UNI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
