North Zone tightens grip over East

A fiery spell of fast bowling by North Zone pacer V R V Singh helped his side bundle out East Zone for a paltry 143 and take a huge first innings lead of 217 runs on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy match.

Resuming at their overnight score 260 for 7, North Zone added another 100 runs with the help of last three batsmen.

Overnight batsman Uday Kaul (48 runs, 105 balls, 5x4) made early exit but Chetanya Nanda's almost run-a-ball 58 helped North to put up a competitive total of 360 runs on the board. Nanda hit 9 fours in his 59-ball knock.

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S S Paul was the most successful bowler for East taking 5 for 106 while Mohanty and Saha captured two wickets each giving away 39 and 102 runs respectively.

East Zone needed to score 210 runs to avoid follow-on but their batsmen caved in against the splendid bowling of VRV Singh.

Niranjan Behera did not bat for East Zone as he sustained fracture on his finger on Monday.

Only Wriddhiman Saha gave some resistance to North and scored an unbeaten 56 which came off 91 balls with 9 boundaries.

V R V Singh grabbed five wickets conceding 59 runs, while leg spinner Amit Mishra and Chetanya Nanda took two wickets each.

North did not prefer to enforce follow on and decided to bat again. In their second essay, they made 109 runs for the loss of two wickets and stretched their overall lead to 326.

Akash Chopra (56 runs, 80 balls, 9x4) and Mithun Manhas (12) were the two not out batsmen at the end of the day's play.

Scorecard:

North Zone, 1st innings: 360
East Zone, 1st innings:
S S Das C U Kaul B VRV Singh 23
Arindam Das LBW B VRV Singh 7
Anustup Mazumdar Bowled VRV Singh 8
Wriddhiman Saha not out 56
Manish Vardhan LBW B VRV Singh 0
Haldar Das Bowled VRV Singh 8
Tushar Saha C C Nanda B A Mishra 4
Debashish Mohnty Bowled A Mishra 8
Ranadeb Bose LBW B C Nanda 4
S S Paul C S Dhavan B C Nanda 0
Niranjan Behera did not bat
Extras (b-6, lb-2, nb-17) 25
Total: 143 for 9 wickets (in 33.3 overs)

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-34, 3-69, 4-69, 5-93, 6-105, 7-114, 8-143, 9-143.

Bowling: V R V Singh 12-2-59-5, Vikramjeet Malik 10-1-50-0, A Mishra 11-2-26-2, Chetanya Nanda 0.3-0-0-2.

North Zone, 2nd innings:
Shikhar Dhawan LBW B D Mohanty 4
Akash Chopra batting 56
Karan Goel C H Das B R Bose 34
Mithun Manhas batting 12
Extras (lb-1, nb-2) 3
Total: 109 for 2 wickets (in 28 overs)

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-91.

Bowling: Debashish Mohanty 5-0-15-1, Ranadeb Bose 8-2-31-1, Tushar Saha 9-1-44-0, S S Paul 4-2-8-0, Anustup Mazumdar 2-0-10-0.