West Zone spin-twins Sairaj Bahutule and Ramesh Powar worked their magic to rip through the South Zone middle-order and bowl them out for 219 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy match at the Moti bagh stadium in Baroda on Thursday.
But Laxmipathy Balaji took two quick wickets for South Zone to make early in-roads into the West Zone batting line-up.
Balaji had opener Satyajit Parab (1) and Rakesh Patel (1) off consecutive overs to reduce West Zone to four for two at the close of play
Former Mumbai teammates Bahutule and Powar, claimed seven wickets between them to leave the South Zone batting in tatters.
While South Zone captain VVS Laxman was stumped off Powar for seven, India discards Sridharan Sriram (43) and Hemang Badani (42) stringed a useful stand of 81 runs for the fourth wicket to consolidate after a shaky start.
But Bahutule broke the partnership when he had the left-handed Badani trapped leg before wicket.
While the leg-spinner grabbed 3 for 65, his former Mumbai teammate Powar pulled in his experience and variations to claim a four-wicket haul at the cost of 78 runs.
Wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik perked up the proceedings with a brisk 34 from 41 balls but South Zone could just go past the 200-mark.
Zaheer Khan, who missed out on the squad for the first two ODIs against Sri Lanka, had an ordinary outing, as he managed to claim only one wicket in 15 overs.
Scorecard
South Zone 1st innings
R Uthappa run out (Jadhav) 30
S Asnodkar c N Patel b Khan 0
S Sriram c Parab b Bahutule 43
VVS Laxman b M Patel 7
H Badani lbw b Bahutule 42
Anirudh Singh st P Patel b Powar 7
D Karthik st PA Patel b Powar 34
K Sahabuddin c PA Patel b Powar 16
R Ramkumar b Powar 2
L Balaji c Jadhav b Bahutule 19
P Ojha not out 1
Extras 18
Total 219
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Asnodkar, 2.1), 2-43 (Uthappa, 19.1), 3-54 (Laxman, 24.6), 4-135 (Sriram, 56.6), 5-142 (Badani, 60.3), 6-156 (Anirudh Singh, 65.3), 7-185 (Sahabuddin, 73.6), 8-189 (Ramkumar, 75.4), 9-202 (Karthik, 77.5), 10-219 (Balaji, 82.4).
Bowling: Khan 15-2-32-1, M Patel 12- 4-20-1, R Patel 10-2-18-0, Powar 27-9-78-4, Bahutule 18.4-1-65-3
West Zone 1st innings
D Jadhav not out 0
S Parab b Balaji 1
R Patel c Karthik b Balaji 1
Extras 2
Total 4
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Parab, 2.2), 2-4 (RB Patel, 4.4).
Bowling: Balaji 2.4- 0-2-2, Sahabuddin 2-1-1-0
