Behera leads East fightback

Skipper Nataraj Behera led from the front with an unbeaten century as East Zone reached 183 for four at stumps in reply to West Zone’s 314 in a Duleep Trophy quarterfinal match here on Saturday.

East still need 132 runs in order to get the vital first- innings lead which will ensure a semifinal berth. Behera was unbeaten on 102 in the company of wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami (1 batting). The only recognised batsman left after them is Anushtup Majumdar of Bengal.

Behera’s unbeaten knock comprised of 13 boundaries and he has faced 246 deliveries in the process.
In the morning, Ashok Dinda (4/85) polished off the tail taking two of the remaining three wickets.

Dinda is now the highest wicket-taker in the domestic season with 41 scalps compared to Taduri Sudhindra’s 40 wickets.

Score board

WEST ZONE (I Innings; O/n: 299/7): Harshad Khadiwale b Dinda 1, Kaustabh Pawar c Goswami b Mohanty 9, Abhishek Nayar b Ahmed 14, Cheteshwar Pujara c & b Ahmed 55, Ambati Rayudu c Samantray b Ahmed 9, Suryakumar Yadav c Goswami b Nadeem  134, Rohit Motwani c Vardhan b Dinda 45, Akshay Darekar c Majumdar b Dinda 24, Sandip Maniar c Goswami b Dinda 4, Samad Fallah (run out) 8, Ishwar Chaudhary (not out) 2. Extras (LB-6, W-2, NB-1) 9. Total (all out, 91.5 overs) 314.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-20, 3-24, 4-41, 5-194, 6-233, 7-299, 8-303, 9-312.
Bowling: Ashoke Dinda 21.5-6-85-4, Basant Mohanty 22-12-39-1, Abu Nechim 18-7-61-3, Biplab Samantray 13-3-40-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 17-1-83-1.

EAST ZONE (I Innings): Dheeraj Jadhav c Motwani b Maniar 38, Manish Vardhan c Motwani b Chaudhary 1, Natraj Behera (batting) 102, Ishank Jaggi c Motwani b Fallah 0, Biplab Samantray c Rayudu b Darekar 37, Sreevats Goswami (batting) 1. Extras (LB-3, W-1) 4. Total (for 4 wickets, 79 overs) 183.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-99, 3-100, 4-180.

Bowling: Ishwar Chaudhary 17-5-41-1, Samad Fallah 17-8-20-1, Sandip Maniar 19-7-36-1, Abhishek Nayar 12-2-33-0, Akshay Darekar 14-3-50-1.