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North Zone takes day’s honours

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

HIGH FIVE: V.R.V. Singh, who took five wickets, celebrates after dismissing Wasim Jaffer.

MUMBAI: North Zone dominated the opening day of this year’s Duleep Trophy final bowling out West Zone for 274 before reaching 53 for no loss at stumps.

On a bouncy wicket, West Zone’s aggressive approach came unstuck as it lost half its side for 170. North Zone’s star bowlers V.R.V. Singh (five for 91) and Amit Mishra (three for 57) shared the spoils after captain Mithun Manhas had opted to make first use of the Wankhede wicket.

Rahane bats well

North Zone’s bowlers called the shots, except when in-form Ajinkya Rahane (91, 112b) and Mumbai teammate Sahil Kukreja put on 88 for the second wicket. Rahane chanced his arm, smashing 18 boundaries before missing the line against Vikramjit Malik.

Wasim Jaffer, who opened West’s batting with Kukreja, scored three boundaries off one over from V.R.V. Singh but the strike bowler soon had him caught by wicket-keeper Kaul. V.R.V. Singh also had Parthiv Patel caught behind to wrest the initiative back from West. Cheteshwar Pujara then followed, cleaned up by a yorker off the first ball he faced from V.R.V. Singh. Mishra was an effective foil for V.R.V. Singh in the morning, keeping batsmen on a leash with control and turn, breaking through opener Kukreja’s defence for a major strike.

Mishra also scalped Yusuf Pathan, who played aggressively, reverse sweeping and pulling the leg-spinner to the fence. However, Mishra had the last laugh as Yusuf smashed a delivery from the leg-spinner into VRV’s hands at mid-on.

The Baroda all-rounder is blessed with reach to rattle bowlers sticking to a line of attack, plus stunning power for big-hitting heroics. Patience is one quality missing in his thinking, so the wild heave after four boundaries was a self-inflicted wound.

Rakesh Solanki, in control of emotions and shot selection at the other end, played a sparkling knock lasting 117 minutes. Compact and quick on his feet, the left-hander made room for square cuts off medium-pacers and picked runs with glides past slips (38, 81b, six fours). Only Rahane stayed longer at the crease, though the example was lost on Pathan.

North openers Aakash Chopra (35 n.o.) and Shikhar Dhawan (17 n.o.) put on a half-century stand in 16 overs of risk-free batting.

The scores:

West Zone — 1st innings: S. Kukreja b Mishra 28, W. Jaffer c Kaul b V.R.V. Singh 23, A. Rahane lbw Vikramjeet Malik 91, P. Patel c Kaul b V.R.V. Singh 1, C. Pujara b V.R.V. Singh 0, R. Solanki c Manhas b V.R.V. Singh 38, Yusuf c V.R.V. Singh b Mishra 27, R. Dhruv (not out) 20, S. Jobanputra c Chopra b V.R.V. Singh 6, A. Makda (run out) 14, S. Trivedi c Manhas b Mishra 0; Extras (lb-11, nb-14, w-1): 26; Total (for 68.2 overs): 274.

Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-122, 3-139, 4-139, 5-170, 6-217, 7-238, 8-246, 9-270.

North Zone bowling: V.R.V. Singh 20-4-91-5, Malik 13-3-32-1, Thakur 12-1-49-0, Bhatia 6-0-34-0, Mishra 17.2-6-57-3.

North Zone — 1st innings: Aakash Chopra (batting) 35, Shikhar Dhawan (batting) 17; Extras (w-1): 1. Total (for no loss in 16 overs): 53.

West Zone bowling: Trivedi 7-3-8-0, Makda 4-2-14-0, Yusuf 4-0-22-0, Dhruv 1-0-9-0.

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