JOIN USCentral Zone took a firm grip on the Duleep Trophy semifinal against South Zone by stumps on the second day with an overall lead of 237 runs and nine wickets in hand here on Sunday.
Resuming at 292 for eight, Central Zone’s first innings ended at 293 and they then dismissed South Zone for 183 before ending the day at 127 for one in their second knock with opener Naman Ojha going strong on 79 and Mohd Kaif on 41.
It was a disappointing performance by South Zone, most of whose batsmen were guilty of injudicious shot selection on a pitch that initially afforded some movement, but otherwise was fairly slow and placid.
Off-spinner Jalaj Saxena, brought into attack rather late, came away with three wickets to complement seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar who also picked up three.
The day began on a promising note as South wrapped up the Central innings in just two overs, but made a mess of their reply. Their innings revolved around a 55-run partnership between Amit Verma (42) and Stuart Binny (56) for the fifth wicket. South’s response was marred by fall of early wickets. Opener Robin Uthappa did not make any impact as he was caught behind attempting an ambitious drive off Bhuvneshwar and Abhinav Mukund retired due to a painful wrist that he had suffered while fielding.
Skipper S Badrinath and Dinesh Kaarthick departed in quick succession to leave South Zone in a precarious position at 47 for three.
Verma and Binny steadied the ship with a very productive association that ended with the introduction of Jalaj Saxena who had the former caught by Piyush Chawla. However, once the partnership was broken, the South Zone innings came apart as the tail-enders did not put up much resistance.