Central Zone bowlers led by captain Shivam Mavi (4/43) silenced the big guns in the West Zone batting line up to narrow them down to 216 for 8 and take control on the opening day of the half final of the Duleep Trophy in Alur on Wednesday. West’s lone point of resistance came from Atit Sheth, who made a composite 74 off 129 balls. West Zone entered the match as overwhelming favourites, thanks to the presence of Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan in their line-up.
It may also have been a reason for West to choose batting after winning the coin toss, despite the mostly cloudy conditions at the KSCA Oval. But none of them fired the way West would have liked.
Shaw and Captain Priyank Panchal started confidently and they also had the help of fortune. Shaw got a life on 16 when Vivek Singh dropped him at first slipper Yash Thakur.
However, left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar, who took eight wickets in the quarter-finals against East Zone, threw Shaw overboard.
The Mumbaikar’s punch was caught on a silly point after a short juggling by Dhruv Jorel and Shaw had to leave rather reluctantly.
The dismissal opened the floodgate as West lost wickets at regular intervals. Suryakumar also got a reprieve on 7 as Vivek dropped his second catch of the match, this time on Shivam Mavi.
But Suryakumar couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity as a whack away from the body of the next ball ended up in Jorel’s hands on slipping.
Sarfaraz came to this game riding a mountain of runs he had scored over the past three domestic seasons. But on this day, all he could do was sustain a 12-ball clean sheet and drag a Mavi delivery back onto his stumps.
Pujara made a 102-ball 28 and looked poised for a long run. However, Mavi returned to dislodge the veteran batsman as West fell to 110 for 6 in the 49th over. His big shot didn’t go past Amandeep Khare on a wide first slip.
The only shocking note during this phase of absolute domination for Central was the clash between Avesh Khan and Rinku Singh, who went after a skier played by Sheth.
Avesh didn’t bowl for the rest of the day and Rinku also took a limited part in the game after that.
Avesh’s absence may have reduced the firepower of Central’s bowling and Sheth took advantage of it in the company of Dharmendra Jadeja.
The seventh wicket alliance was resolute as they milked 73 runs to keep the stubborn Central bowlers at bay for nearly 25 overs. The stubborn stand came to an end when Jadeja was evicted by Saransh Jain.
Mavi soon opened up a lead from Sheth which was gobbled up by Jurel at the slip cordon as Central put their footprint on the day.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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