West Zone captain Sachin Tendulkar failed with the bat in his comeback match even though his side managed to take a 20-run first innings lead against South Zone in their Duleep Trophy match in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
South, who were bowled out for 187 in the first innings, found themselves in disarray again as they were reduced to 141 for five in the second innings at stumps on the second day at the Viskaha Stadium.
Tendulkar, resuming action after an injury enforced lay-off, hit an exquisite four off the very first ball he faced, but three balls later misread the line of an Anil Kumble delivery to be clean bowled -- much to the disappointment of a big crowd which had hoped to see the batting maestro in full flow.
Resuming at overnight score of 71 for 3, West Zone reached 207 with the help of some rear guard action by Neeraj Patel (43) and Parthiv Patel, who scored an elegant 25.
Ramesh Powar, who wrecked South Zone's first innings, scored 15 runs as the team coasted to 207 with Anil Kumble and Vinay Kumar claiming four wickets each.
Starting with a deficit of 20 runs South Zone batting did not raise their level with VVS Laxman (13) and Rahul Dravid (5) getting out rather cheaply. Opener Robin Uthappa scored 40 with four hits to the fence.
South's second innings was built around valuable knocks by Y Venugopala Rao (not out 47) and S Sriram (23) who put on 56-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Venugopal and Sriram enthralled the crowd with some good stroke play before the later was caught behind the wicket off Powar for a well made 23.
Scorecard
South Zone 1st innings 187
West Zone 1st innings (overnight 71 for 3)
Dheeraj Jadav c Dinesh Kartik b L Balaji 30
Satyajit Parab lbw b Anil Kumble 13
Wasim Jaffer c Sriram b Vinay Kumar 13
Rajesh Pawar b Anil Kumble 0
Sachin Tendulkar b Anil Kumble 4
Neeraj Patel c V V S Laxman b L Balaji 43
Parthiv Patel lbw b Vinay Kumar 25
Ramesh Powar c Dravid b Vinay Kumar 31
Ajit Agarkar lbw b Vinay Kumar 15
Irfan Pathan not out 1
Zaheer Khan lbw b Anil Kumble
Extras (b-1, lb-13, w-5, nb-12) 3
Total (all out, 68 overs) 207
Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-67, 3-74, 4-75, 5-75, 6-137, 7-171, 8-197, 9-204
Bowling: L Balaji 19-6-57-2, Jesuraj 11-2-37-0, Anil Kumble 23-4-69-4, Vinay Kumar 13-3-22-4, Y Venugopala Rao 2-0-8-0.
South Zone 2nd innings
Robin Utthappa c Wasim Jaffer b Irfan Pathan 40
Roland Barrington lbw b Irfan Pathan 11
V V S Laxman b Zaheer Khan 13
Rahul Dravid c Neeraj Patel b Ramesh Powar 5
S Sriram C P Patel b Rajesh Pawar 23
Y Venugopala Rao (batting) 37
Dinesh Karthik (batting) 3
Extras (nb-9) 9
Total (for 5 wickets in 54 overs) 141
Fall of Wickets: 1-31, 2-58, 3-69, 4-78, 5-132.
Bowling: Ajit Agarkar 10-2-41-0, Irfan Pathan 12-1-43-2, Zaheer Khan 7-0-20-1, Ramesh Powar 9-2-24-1, Rajesh Pawar 5-2-11-1, Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-2-0.
