Kochar keeps South at bay

Gaurav Kochar struck an unbeaten century as ZCA North came away with an equal share of points from their drawn encounter with ZCA South in the inter-zonal cricket tournament for the Hanumant Singh Trophy at the Adhiyaaman College ground in Hosur on Monday.

South had been primed to push forward for the first-innings honours at the conclusion of day two of the three-day tie, having reduced North to 183 for four in reply to their own 414 all out. Overnight 30, Kochar took it upon himself to guide his fortunes, batting out 105 overs whilst adding a further 104 runs off his own willow.

The end result of all that was that North had reached 379 for nine in 173 overs, with Kochar on 134, when the game was drawn, meaning that not even the first innings of both teams could be completed.

With a majority of the first two days washed out at the Gangotri Glades in Mysore, the encounter between ZCA Central and ZCA East too ended in a complete stalemate with the teams splitting the points evenly, while in Anantpur, President’s XI stacked up a massive 186-run first-innings lead over ZCA West.

Overnight 74 for three chasing the President’s XI total of 427, West were shot out for 241 as Prateek Kaushik snaffled five for 95 and Soumya Jain complemented him nicely with three for 41.

Nikhil Nayak ploughed a lone furrow for West, making 94. West’s plight was best illustrated by the fact that the next highest individual score was Aakarshit Gomel’s 29, never enough with a huge target.

DH News Service

Brief scores: At Adhiyaaman College Ground, Hosur: ZCA South: 414 all out in 129.3 overs drew ZCA North: 379/9 in 173 overs (Unmukt Chand 60, Gaurav Kochar 134 n.o., Nikhil Gangtha 55, Kamal Passi 32; Aparajith 4-109), 

At Gangotri Glades, Mysore: ZCA Central: 251 all out in 88.5 overs (Rakshan Faras 61, Almas Shaukat 46, Hemant Pal 41, Ashutosh Singh 31; Sourav Das 3-49, Asmit Raut 3-73) vs ZCA East: 115/2 in 31 overs  (Vishal Singh 52, Sharvan Kumar 51 n.o.).
At Anantpur Sports Village, Anantpur: President’s XI: 427 all out in 144 overs drew ZCA West: 241 all out  in 81.2 overs (Nikhil Nayak 94, Aakarshit Gomel 29, C Gaja 28; Prateek Kaushik 5-95, Soumya Jain 3-41).