Central in comfortable zone

Valsad, December 10: Central Zone established a 232-run comfortable lead over North Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semi-fina...

Valsad, December 10: Central Zone established a 232-run comfortable lead over North Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final at the BDCA ground here today. Central declared their innings at 345 for nine.

North Zone were four for no loss in three overs at close of the day8217;s play. The heroes for Central, after Jyoti Yadav8217;s 84 yesterday were Sanjay Bangar who made 67 runs with the help of six fours and one six in 299 minutes and 207 balls. Overnight batsman Mohd Kaif contributed 40 with six boundaries, while Yogesh Ghare remained unbeaten with 66 runs hitting 10 fours.

Three useful partnerships helped Central cross the 300 mark. Sanjay Bangar was involved in two of the partnerships for the third wicket. Bangar and Mohd Kaif put on 74 runs, while for the fifth wicket Bangar in the company of Ghare put on 56 runs. Ghare was then involved in a 30-run sixth wicket partnership with Manoj Mudgal.For the North Zone, Harvinder Singh, Vineet Jain, Virendra Sehwag and Ashish Nehra captured two wickets each to share the spoils. Pradeep Jain was the other successful North bowler taking one wicket. It was very slow going for Central who were trying to consolidate their position knowing that with a big first innings lead they could be sitting pretty.

North Zone 1st Innings: 113
South Zone 1st Innings: J Yadav c Sehwag b Harvinder Singh 84; G Khoda b V Jain 0; S Bangar c Dahiya b Harvinder 67; Mohd Kaif c Dahiya b V Jain 40; Yogesh Ghare not out 66; Devendra c Dahiya b Nehra 14; M Mudgal c Dahiya b Nehra 17; M Kartik c Sehwag b P Jain 4; Pritam Gandhe c Manhas b Sehwag 8; Ubaid Kamal c Dani b Sehwag 0; Zaidi not out 3; Extras: 23 nb, 4 lb, 15 b 42; Total for 9 wkts decl: 345.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-134, 3-208, 4-215, 5-271, 6-301, 7-325, 8-336, 9-336.Bowling: Harvinder 18-4-65-2, V Jain 33-13-78-2, Nehra 28-8-68-2, Sehwag 29-6-74-2, Dani 4-3-1-0, P Jain 17-5-40-1.

North Zone 2nd Innings: A Dani batting 2; V Rathour batting 2; Total for no loss: 4.

Bowling: Ubaid Kamal 2-0-4-0, Zaidi 1-1-0-0.