Gautam Gambhir leads, none follow

Despite scoring a century himself, the skipper must be kicking himself as it was his wicket that triggered the batting collapse. Gambhir and Yuvraj, the two overnight batsmen, started off well and a couple of boundaries early on helped them get into the groove.

Yuvraj began tentatively but later smashed some well-timed boundaries to inch closer towards his half-century. However, despite putting on 110 runs with Gambhir, Yuvraj never looked comfortable at the crease and was clean bowled for 47 by Kuldeep Yadav, giving the left-arm chinaman his first wicket in his debut first class match.

With Sehwag and Yuvraj already back in the hut, the team needed someone to play anchor for Gambhir, who was slowly returning to form. Coming on the heels of a disappointing series against England where he managed just 25 runs in four innings, the left-hander played a classy knock and did not miss the opportunity of putting forward his case in front of selector Vikram Rathour, for the third opener’s slot for the forthcoming Test series against Australia, by hitting spinner Karn Sharma for a boundary to score his 37th first class century.

As Gambhir played his strokes, Central Zone skipper Piyush Chawla tried everything to break the partnership between him and Mandeep, who had already added 140 runs for the fourth wicket. But Robin Bisht blew it away, and Gambhir made the most of the lifeline by going past 150.

Dominating show

But that joy was not to last long. Gambhir fell soon after the lunch break. His attempt to pull a short delivery by mediumpacer Ishwar Pandey towards extra cover in the second over after lunch was caught by an alert Arindham Ghosh. Gambhir’s wicket was the turning point in North’s innings as the lowerorder batsmen failed to handle the pressure and threw away their wickets. Mandeep, who glanced Jalaj Saxena towards long leg to reach his half-century, was the next to go. With the new ball in his hand, Pankaj Singh bowled a teasing line and Mandeep could only glove it to Naman Ojha behind stumps.

With half of North’s batsmen back in the hut and two new batsmen – Nitin Saini and Rishi Dhawan – at the crease, Pankaj and Pandey sensed an opportunity and bowled their hearts out. Saini soaked up the pressure and hit some delectable shots off both the pacers, but a sudden rush of blood saw his partner Dhawan lose his wicket. He came charging down the ground and tried to hit Kuldeep over his head but there was neither power nor precision in his shot and he was caught by substitute fielder Amit Mishra at mid-on.

Big crisis

His dismissal put North further into crisis with only the last recognisable batting pair of Saini and Parvez Rasool left to rescue the team. While Saini continued his charge and reached his half-century off just 56 deliveries, he too was guilty of throwing his wicket away at a crucial juncture, allowing Kuldeep to breach his defence. Rasool, too, followed soon after scoring a quick-fire 44 off 47 balls.

From there on, it was a mere formality for Central Zone and their bowlers wrapped up North’s innings at 457. Any hopes North had of making amends in the second innings was nipped in the bud as bad light brought an end to the day’s play with Central taking to the field. If North had picked up a couple of wickets in the last session, they might have sensed an opportunity, but that door too was closed.

Among Central bowlers, Kuldeep had a dream debut. Bowling a good length, the chinaman was not afraid to give flight to his deliveries and troubled the North batsmen. He finished with 3/94. Pankaj and Ishwar too played a key role in packing North Zone below the 500-run mark with two wickets each.

Brief scores: Central Zone 538 versus North Zone 457 all out in 118.1 overs (Gautam Gambhir 167, Mandeep Singh 74, Nitin Saini 56, Yuvraj Singh 47, Kuldeep Yadav 3 for 94, Karn Sharma 2 for 67, Pankaj Singh 2 for 77, Ishwar Pandey 2 for 86)

South decimate East to make final

Lahli (Rohtak): South Zone took just 40 minutes into the third morning to decimate East Zone by an innings and 118 runs en route their entry into Duleep Trophy final.

East’s second innings was terminated at 62 for nine with Wriddhiman Saha nursing a bruised thumb not coming out to bat. East’s innings lasted a mere 8.3 overs on the third day morning after starting at 30 for four being asked to follow on on a seamer-friendly track at Bansi Lal Stadium.

With only 23.4 overs in the second innings, East batted merely 70-odd overs across two innings. Even more embarrassing was the fact that none of their batsmen could cross individual score of 20 in both innings. The highest score for East in the second essay was Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s 18.

Shukla was the first to go as he played an atrocious pull shot off HS Sharath, who returned with figures of four for 27. There was no resistance from other batsmen and with Wriddhiman taking a logical decision of resting before the Sri Lanka one dayers, the match got over in just a shade over two days.

“Some of the boys need to go back to the drawing board and get their techniques right. It is disappointing to get out without scoring 100 in both innings. We will have to get better as we will come back here in future and play again,” Manoj Tiwary, East captain, said. (PTI)

Brief scores: South Zone 264 beat East Zone 84 & 62/9 (HS Sharath 4/27) by an innings and 118 runs