North flex batting muscles on Day 1

It was Yuvraj’s day, both on and off the field at the PCA stadium here today. While those in the stands could hardly reconcile with the...

It was Yuvraj’s day, both on and off the field at the PCA stadium here today. While those in the stands could hardly reconcile with the fact that he was actually there in the middle, the flamboyant batsman made his bat do the talking, scoring a strokeful 106 for North Zone against East Zone on the first day of the Duleep Trophy final.

Put to bat, North Zone top order flourished under the sun and afterwards did the vanishing act too with the sun before closing their innings at 304-7. ‘‘It was a decent performance, just that we could have done better,’’ summed up captain Dinesh Mongia after making a spirited 84. As Yuvraj later described it, openers Aakash Chopra and Gautam Gambhir did a good job with the moving ball in the morning putting on 82 before Chopra (27) fell leg before to SS Paul. Gambhir (46) followed soon, falling in similar fashion to S Lahiri.

That brought old pals Yuvraj and Dinesh together and then began a long essay of beautiful batting. East captain Davang Gandhi introduced spin attack early in the innings and at the end of the day they had bowled more overs than the seamers. Relishing the slower ball that showed occasional deviations, the duo added 166 for the third wicket. Yuvraj’s exit (run out by a direct hit by Devang Gandhi from covers) brought in some drama. That the next three wickets fell for the addition of just three runs only highlighted the vulnerability of the middle-order. Mongia, Mithun Manhas and Joginder Singh were all out within a space of 18 balls.

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SS Paul was the most successful bowler of the day claiming 3-65 while Debashish Mohanty finished with 2-44.

SCOREBOARD

North Zone (1st Innings): A Chopra lbw Paul 27; G Gambhir lbw Lahiri 46; Yuvraj Singh run out 106; D Mongia c Shukla b Mohanty 84; M Manhas lbw Paul 1; A Ratra batting 8; J Sharma c Dhoni b Paul 0; Gagandeep Singh c Dhoni b Mohanty 4; Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-17) 28; Total (For 7 wkts, 89.3 overs) 304

Fall of wickets: 1-82, 2-88, 3-285, 4-285, 5-288, 6-288, 7-304.

Bowling: Shib Shankar Paul 22-7-65-3, Debasish Mohanty 19.3-3-44-2, Sourasish Lahiri 20-5-61-1, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 8-3-28-0, Utpal Chatterjee 12-0-66-0, Kiran Powar 6-0-24-0, Rohan Gavaskar 2-1-5-0.

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