Jaffer, Williams give West
good start

Opening batsmen Wasim Jaffer (127, 205 balls, 18x4) and Connor Williams (74, 138b, 15x4) gave West Zone a solid start, putting on 173 runs for the opening wicket on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy league cricket match against Central Zone in Rajkot on Tuesday.

West, batting first, finished the day 15 minutes before the scheduled end due to bad light, on 286 for five off 85.3 overs, with former Indian stumper Nayan Mongia batting on 17 and Sairaj Bahutule on seven.

For Central Zone, off spinnr Kulamani Parida finished with two for 65 while former Test leg spinner Narendra Hirwani took two for 99.

Despite getting a fine start, the West batsmen failed to consolidate their position, losing their skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar (0), youngster Altaf Merchant (32) and southpaw Vinod Kambli (6) cheaply.

First to go was Williams. After making a stylish 74 he fell victim to Hirwani, giving Rahul Jhalani an easy catch.

Kanitkar, who came one down did not stay long and was caught by Jyoti Yadav at forward short leg off Hirwani for no score.

Merchant hung around for some time before being caught by Yadav at forward short-leg off Parida.

Kambli hit a six off Parida but was out in the same over when Yere Goud took a good catch at gully off Parida.

Earlier, Jaffer was bowled by Harvinder Singh playing across the line for a well-made 122. Jaffer and Williams batted together for 183 minutes, scoring almost run a ball.

Nehra wrecks South Zone

Left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra picked five wickets for 46 runs as North Zone skittled out South for a paltry 168 on the opening day of a Duleep Trophy league match in Faridabad on Tuesday.

At close, North were 96 for one with Vikram Rathore batting on 39 and Yuvraj Singh on 18.

South, who recently clinched the Deodhar Trophy, struggled throughout the day with only three batsmen reaching double figures.

Electing to bat, South lost three early wickets. Test discard Sadagopan Ramesh's dismal domestic form continued when he was caught by wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya off Nehra for nought. Sridharan Sriram (10) and Hemang Badani (4) also fell cheaply.

Vinay Kumar (50) and Karnataka's Vijay Bharadwaj (64) tried to stem the rot with a 78-run stand for the fourth wicket but that turned out to be the only bright phase of the South innings.

Two quick wickets, with Nehra taking the crucial wicket of southpaw Sridharan Sharath (0), sounded the death-knell from which South never recovered.

Left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi lent valuable support to Nehra, claiming four for 47.

In reply, North began with a 68-run opening partnership between Rathore and Akash Chopra (37) before the latter fell to Suresh Kumar.

Mail Cricket Editor