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Praveen Kumar rocks South with an incisive spell

Vijay Lokapally

INDORE: An incisive spell by Central Zone seamer Praveen Kumar rocked South Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal at the Maharani Usha Raje cricket stadium here on Wednesday.

His five for 48 left South Zone at 254 for eight in pursuit of Central Zone’s first innings total of 333.

South did extremely well on Wednesday morning as Central, resuming at 300 for seven was restricted to 333. Piyush Chawla remained unbeaten on 90 even as R. Vinay Kumar claimed all the three wickets to finish with five for 102.

Vinay showed the spirit to fight with the bat too as he compiled an unconquered 44 to keep South’s hopes alive.

“No doubt Praveen bowled well but our batsmen should have shown some application. They just threw away the wickets,” said South coach Sanath Kumar even as he confided the team had decided to watch out for Praveen.

“We knew we had to see him off,” said Sanath.

But Praveen had his own plans. He bowled with a lot of zest to make the best of the conditions.

He packed off the first four batsmen with his late movement leaving the batsmen frustrated. Pankaj Singh trapped Manish Pandey in front to break the back of South’s batting.

“I know bowlers have apprehension working with the Kookaburra ball but I was happy with the early swing that I got. I knew it was my day and I just let myself go. I enjoyed bowling on this pitch,” said Praveen.

Some of his deliveries flashed past the batsmen before South was saved by a sixth-wicket stand of 108 between C.M. Gautam (52 with nine fours) and R. Ashwin (58 with ten fours) before both fell in succession.

C. Ganapathy chipped in with a responsible 33 but perished at the fag end of the day.

Vinay (44 with six fours and one six) was left holding the fort in the company of S. Jakati.

The scores: Central Zone — 1st innings: T. Srivastava c Badrinath b Mithun 42, J. Saxena b Mithun 7, S. Bangar lbw Mithun 4, M. Kaif c Pandey b Vinay 112, S. Raina c Ashwin b Jakati 22, Parvinder c Karthik b Ganapathy 1, N. Ojha c Karthik b Vinay 14, P. Chawla (not out) 90, Praveen Kumar c Uthappa b Vinay 21, R.P. Singh c Mukund b Vinay 7, Pankaj Singh b Vinay 1; Extras:(lb-8, nb-3, w-1) 12, Total: (in 100.5 overs) 333.

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-31, 3-86, 4-125, 5-126, 6-154, 7-272, 8-307, 9-315.

South Zone bowling: R. Vinay Kumar 28.5-2-102-5, A. Mithun 23-3-64-3, C. Ganapathy 14.2-3-34-1, R. Ashwin 18.4-2-70-0, S. Jakati 14-2-49-1, A. Mukund 2-0-6-0.

South Zone — 1st innings: A. Mukund c Ojha b Praveen 13, R. Uthappa c Kaif b Praveen 19, A. Karthik c Ojha b Praveen 8, S. Badrinath c Chawla b Praveen 9, M. Pandey lbw b Pankaj 15, C. Gautam lbw b R.P. Singh 52, R. Ashwin lbw b R.P. Singh 58, C. Ganapathy c Ojha b Praveen 33, R. Vinay Kumar (batting) 44, S Jakati (batting) 0; Extras: (lb-2, nb-1) 3; Total: (for eight wickets in 73 overs) 254.

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-37, 3-46, 4-61, 5-65, 6-173, 7-176, 8-253.

Central Zone bowling: Praveen Kumar 17-5-48-5, R.P. Singh 18-5-58-2, Pankaj Singh 16-2-48-1, Sanjay Bangar 10-1-44-0, Piyush Chawla 9-0-45-0, Jalaj Saxena 3-0-9-0.

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