Ishant Sharma, India’s most impressive bowler on the tour of Australia, is out of the upcoming first Test against South Africa but the team’s bowling arsenal has been sufficiently refilled by the return of left-arm paceman Rudra Pratap Singh. Singh had suffered a hamstring strain during the Adelaide Test and was ruled out of the CB series that followed. Since then, he has followed a strict fitness routine at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. Having completed the recovery process and gaining match fitness in two Ranji one-dayers, RP is back among the wickets in the Deodhar Trophy.For the selectors, who had assembled in Bangalore on Monday to pick the team for the first Test, watching RP bowl against North Zone and end with figures five for 36 from 7.1 overs was heartening. The swing bowler, who opened the spell for Central Zone with all-rounder Praveen Kumar, got the first four North Zone batsmen — including Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra for duck. Singh appeared at ease, stuck to a an off-stump line and had batsmen edging repeatedly to the wicketkeeper or to gully with some excellent swing bowling. His other victims were Rajat Bhatia, Shikhar Dhawan and Pradeep Sangwan, and he was instumental in Central Zone winning the match despite Virender Sehwag’s 73-ball 81.The day before the match, Singh had spent the entire afternoon at the NCA nets, where he had said he was “feeling extremely good about his bowling”. He has been India’s main bowler, along with Zaheer Khan, over the last one year. During the Test series in England, and later in the Twenty20 championship in South Africa, he was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s preferred choice when it came to breaking crucial partnerships. “I’m sure this break will do me good,” he said.Brief scores: Central 293 for 3 in 50 overs: Ojha110, Fazal 66 vs North Zone 223 all out in 42.2 overs Sehwag 81, Kaul 55, Amit Mishra 43, R P Singh 5/36, Sandeep Singh 2 Zone by six wicketsHyderabad: Opener Wasim Jaffer scored a 43-ball 48, aided by 10 fours, to help guide the West Zone to a six-wicket win against the East Zone in the Deodhar Trophy here. Jaffer, struggling to find form but retained in the Test squad for the upcoming series against South Africa, helped stabilise the West’s innings after the side’s shaky start.West Zone chased the target of 226 in 39.2 overs for loss of four wickets and collected five points. Earlier, Saurabh Tiwary smashed 65 for East Zone while AM Rahane pitched in for a valuable 72-ball 60. East’s bowlers DS Goswami, SS Paul and LR Shukla claimed a wicket a piece. For the West Zone, Y Venugopal Rao claimed the crucial wickets of Shukla and WP Saha for 16 runs. Brief scores: East Zone: 225 in 49.2 overs A Das 47, S Tiwary 65 lost to West Zone: 226/4 in 39.2 overs (A Rahane 60, A Nayar 49, W Jaffar 48, Agarkar 2/47)
