Nayan Mongia shines
for West Zone
Former Indian stumper Nayan Mongia's unbeaten 70, studded with 11 fours off 162 balls, helped West
Zone score 416 all out in their first innings on the second day of the Duleep Trophy cricket league match against
Central Zone in Rajkot on Wednesday.
In reply, Central had made 154 for four by stumps, with
skipper Gagan Khoda batting on 76, off 134 balls with 11 fours,
and Kulmani Parida batting on eight.
West, resuming at the overnight score of 286 for five, went for quick runs, and Mongia, who was batting on 17 on Tuesday,
and Sairaj Bahutule (batting 7) put on 74 runs for the sixth
wicket in 139 minutes, off just 92 balls.
First to go was Bahutule. After making a brisk 35, off 92
balls with four fours, the Mumbai leggie was caught by Jyoti
Yadav in the slips off medium pacer Harvinder Singh.
Ramesh Powar (17) hung around for some time, and after
adding 34 runs for the seventh wicket with Mongia, perished,
being caught by Harvinder Singh in the deep off leg spinner
Narendra Hirwani.
In the company of Valmick Buch (13), Irfan Pathan (11) and
Lalit Patel (5), Mongia managed to take his team to the big
total. He was in the middle for 240 minutes for his unbeaten
70 before running out of partners.
Off-spinner Parida was the most successful Central bowler,
taking four for 96 while Hirwani finished with four for 137.
Rathore, Yuvraj lift North Zone
Centuries by Vikram Rathore and Yuvraj Singh placed North Zone in a commanding position, as
they finished the second day of the Duleep Trophy match
against South at 387 for three, in Faridabad on Wednesday.
Just two wickets fell during the day after North resumed at
their overnight score of 96 for one.
Rathore was one of the two to be dismissed, when he was caught by Vijay Bharadwaj off
Sridharan Sriram for 104.
But Yuvraj Singh continued to torment the South bowlers,
remaining unbeaten on 163 as North took a 119-run first
innings lead with seven wickets remaining.
Shafiq Khan was the other not out batsman at the end of
the day, having scored 27.
Rathore and Yuvraj, who resumed at their individual
scores of 39 and 18, batted throughout the morning session to
take the total to 198 for one at lunch.
Both reached their centuries after lunch with boundaries.
Rathore struck his 18th four to reach his hundred while Yuvraj
brought up his century with his 14th four.
South earned their first breakthrough when a tired-
looking Rathore was out after more than four-and-a-half-hour
long knock. The second wicket partnership between Rathore and
Yuvraj yielded 163 runs.
South's second success came after 110 runs when Mithun
Manhas was caught by Sriram off R V Prasad's bowling for 44.
Yuvraj has so far batted for more than six-and-a-half
hours, hitting 18 boundaries and three sixes.
Mail Cricket Editor
