Central Zone made to struggle

Central Zone was struggling at 85 for two in reply to North Zone8217;s mammoth score of 443 on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket match at the Keenan Stadium here today.

Central Zone was struggling at 85 for two in reply to North Zone8217;s mammoth score of 443 on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket match at the Keenan Stadium here today.

T P Singh was batting on 26 and Brijesh Tomar on 13, when the second day8217;s play was called off 34 minutes before the scheduled playtime due to bad light.

Central Zone, who were 41 for no loss at the tea break, received a setback in the very first over in the post-tea session when medium pacer Joginder Sharma had Pagnis caught behind off Mahesh Rawat for 15. Former Indian seamer V R V Singh struck one over later having Shukla 24 caught behind the stumps. Ashish Nehra, who was playing the four-day tournament after a gap of 17 months following an injury, returned impressive figures of 9-2-19-0.

Earlier, resuming at an overnight score of 310 for five, the unbeaten pair of Mahesh Rawat and Joginder Sharma added 172 runs for the sixth wicket and completed their ton before lunch.

In Cuttack, Sri Lanka A bowled out West Zone for a paltry 149 and took a huge 259-run overall lead on the second day of their four-day Duleep Trophy match at the Barabati stadium.

The visitors, who scored 325 in the first innings, began the second innings on a strong note ending the day at 83 for one. West Zone commenced their first knock on a disastrous note losing the first four wickets with only 21 runs on the board. Middle order batsman Amol Muzumdar 51 stood among the ruins and shared a fifth-wicket stand of 84 with wicket keeper Parthiv Patel 38.

BRIEF SCORES

North Zone 443 all out Gautam Gambhir 70, Yashpal Singh 74, Mahesh Rawat 115, Joginder Sharma 103, Murali Karthik 3/103 vs Central Zone 85 for 2 wkts T P Singh 26 no, VRV Singh 1/28.

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Sri Lanka A 1st innings 325 and 83 for 1 wkt; West Zone 1st innings 149 all out Amol Muzumder 51, Parthiv Patel 38, Akalanka Ganegama 4/47, Upul Chandana 3/23