JOIN USFormer India batsman Mohammad Kaif played the anchor role with an unbeaten 108 as Central Zone recovered from a difficult position to end the opening day at 292 for eight in their Duleep Trophy semifinal against defending champions South Zone here on Saturday.
At the close of play, T Sudhindra (10) was giving company to Kaif (108 off 207) at the MA Chidambaram stadium here.
For South Zone, in-form medium pacer Stuart Binny claimed three for 47 runs, while Abhimanyu Mithun took two for 80.
Electing to bat, Central lost their first wicket when medium pacer Mithun clean bowled opener Naman Ojha (9). That brought Kaif on to the crease at one for 25.
With three more wickets falling in the first session, Central Zone were in a spot of bother at 91 with the loss of four wickets at lunch.
However, Kaif’s determed innings rescued Central to a very large extent.
The Uttar Pradesh cricketer forged 27 for the second wicket in 12 overs with Rajasthan’s Vineet Saxena (19), who made a double hunded at the same venue last month against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy final.
Kaif then added 29 runs for the third wicket in nine overs with Mohnish Mishra (15) and then nine runs with Robin Bist for the fourth wicket when the teams went in for the lunch break.
In the post-lunch session, Kaif started playing his shots more freely and reached his half-century off 90 balls in 136 minutes with seven elegant fours.
During the session, Kaif managed to add 52 runs for the fifth wicket in 19.1 overs with Parvinder Singh (22) and then 48 for the sixth with Jalaj Saxena (29) in 13.1 overs.
The 31-year-old right-handed batsman brought up his hundred off 203 balls.
He also realised a highest stand of 73 runs in 14.4 overs so far in the match with captain Piyusha Chawla (52, 5x4, 3x6) for the seventh wicket.
Score board
CENTRAL ZONE (I Innings): Naman Ojha b Mithun 9, Vineet Saxena c Karthik b Binny 19, Mohd Kaif (batting) 108, Mohnish Mishra c Appanna b Binny 15, Robin Bist b Appanna 5, Parvinder Singh c Karthik b Mahesh 22, Jalaj Saxena c Karthik b Mithun 29, Piyush Chawla c Uthappa b Binny 52, Bhuvneshwar Kumar c Verma b Kaushik 7, T Sudhindra (batting) 10. Extras (B-1, LB-8, NB-7) 16. Total (for 8 wkts, 90 overs) 292.
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-52, 3-81, 4-90, 5-132, 6-180, 7-253, 8-268.
Bowling: Abhimanyu Mithun 17-3–80–2, J Kaushik 17–4–47–1, Yomahesh 17–6–42–1, Stuart Binny 15–4–47–3, KP Appanna 24–4–67–1.