Chennai, Oct 7: North Zone tightened their grip on their Airtel Duleep Trophy quarter-final match, after posting a mammoth 484 in their first innings and then picking up one West Zone wicket in the few minutes of play that were possible before stumps were drawn on Day 2.
Resuming on their overnight total of 251 for three, the North Zone batsmen helped themselves to useful scores on a batsman-friendly track at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Though the overnight batsman, Nitin Saini, was dismissed without adding to his yesterday’s score, the batsmen who followed scored useful runs. Paras Dogra, who walked in to bat at No.5, made a stroke-filled 77 (which included 10 boundaries and one six). Rishi Dhawan and Amit Mishra helped themselves to 38 and 48 respectively. The sixth wicket pair of Dhawan and Dogra added 88 runs, while useful contributions right down to the end ensured North Zone had amassed 484 runs before losing all their wickets.
For West Zone, the off-spinner Kamlesh Makvana, who accounted for the two openers on Day 1, was the best bowler; he bowled 47 overs for his five-wicket haul – his seventh such haul in first-class cricket. Samad Fallah (2/59), Harmeet Singh (2/147) and Murtaja Vahora (1/53) were the other wicket-takers.
After almost two full days on the field, West Zone finally had their opportunity to bat – even if only for a few minutes – on the second day. But Ishant Sharma struck a huge blow as he dismissed the prolific Ajinkya Rahane for a first-ball duck. When the players left the field at the end of the day West Zone were six for one from three overs with Kaustubh Pawar (4) and Murtaja Vahora (0) unbeaten at the crease.
Brief scores:
North Zone 1st innings: 484 in 174.4 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 101, Rahul Dewan 65, Paras Dogra 77, Kamlesh Makvana 5/140); West Zone 1st innings: 6/1 in 3.0 overs (Ishant Sharma 1/4)
