Hyderebad: South Zone, riding on their pacemen’s exploits, took a stranglehold of their Duleep Trophy semifinal clash against Central Zone at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium here on Thursday.
Having amassed 443 all out in their first innings, South skittled Central for a paltry 178 and then extended the lead to 397 with eight wickets in hand by the end of second day’s play.
South, who had the option of pressing for the follow-on, decided to bat again and both their openers -- Abhinav Mukund and Robin Uthappa -- got half-centuries as South reached 132 for two at stumps. While Uthappa was out after a breezy 41-ball 59, Mukund was batting on 60.
Resuming at their overnight score of 416, South added 27 more runs with double centurion Manish Pandey (218) being the last man to be dismissed. While the batsmen called shots on the opening day, the first session of the second day saw bowlers dominate the proceedings, including three of Central batsmen. Karnataka seamers - S Aravind, R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, led South’s charge taking a wicket each to leave Central tottering at 61 for three at the lunch break.
Aravind drew first blood catching opener Aakash Chopra for four. Vinay and Mithun then built the pressue as Central found the going tough against some hostile bowling.
After resumption, Vinay, testing Central batsmen with his slow, short stuff, had Naman Ojha caught brilliantly at forward short leg by Mukund.
The visitors soon suffered another blow when Mohammad Kaif retired hurt. Mithun ended an iffy stay of Devendra Bundela with a superb outswinger while Aravind saw the back of Rudra Pratap Singh. Amidst the collapse Ashok Menaria (79 not out) resorted to counter attack with and found handsome success.
Hitherto unimpressive, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha got amongst wickets to claim two of the last three wickets while skipper S Badrinath acounted for last man Umesh Yadav.
Score Board
SOUTH ZONE (I Innings, O/n: 416/8): Manish Pandey c N Ojha b Yadav 218, Pragyan Ojha b Singh 11, S Arvind (not out) 0. Extras (B-2, LB-3, W-1) 6. Total (all out, 95.4 overs) 443.
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-56, 3-230, 4-294, 5-347, 6-350, 7-372, 8-416, 9-437.
Bowling: RP Singh 26-3-106-3, Pankaj Singh 22-2-85-2, Umesh Yadav 23.4-3-103-3, Akshay Wakhare 21-2-114-1, Devendra Bundela 3-0-30-0.
CENTRAL ZONE: Aakash Chopra c Pandey b Arvind 4, Mohnish Mishra c&b Vinay 28, Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Badrinath b Mithun 8, Mohammad Kaif (retired hurt) 20, Naman Ojha c Mukund b Vinay 8, Devendra Bundela c Gautam b Mithun 11, Ashok Menaria (not out) 79, RP Singh c Kaarthick b Arvind 5, Akshay Wakhare lbw Ojha 5, Pankaj Singh c Pandey b Badrinath 0, Umesh Yadav c Vinay b Ojha 2. Extras (B-2, LB-1, W-3, NB-2) 8. Total (all out, 51 overs) 178.
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-36, 3-41, 4-77, 5-106, 6-116, 7-174, 8-175, 9-178.
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 14-2-50-2, A Mithun 12-2-41-2, S Arvind 13-3-30-2, Pragyan Ojha 10-0-45-2, S Badrinath 2-0-9-1.
SOUTH ZONE: Abhinav Mukund (batting) 60, Robin Uthappa c Ojha b Pankaj 59, Dinesh Kaarthick lbw Bundela 9, Amit Verma (batting) 0. Extras (LB-4) 4. Total (for 2 wkts, 28 overs) 132.
Fall of wickets: 1-87, 2-131.
Bowling: RP Singh 6-2-21-0, Pankaj Singh 7-0-34-1, Umesh Yadav 3-0-32-0, Devendra Bundela 6-0-20-1, Akshay Wakhare 6-2-21-0.
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