Yashpal resurrects North's fightback

Whenever someone is in problem, be it a country, team or an individual an army personnel always comes forward with the rescue act.

Same thing happened in the ongoing Zonal Duleep Trophy match as Services player Yashpal Singh came out with a resolute 97, unlucky to miss out a century, to bail out North Zone from a precarious situation of 104/5 to take them to a healthy first innings total of 299 runs against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy tie played at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium here on Sunday.

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The 26-year-old Yashpal, resumed from his overnight score of 24 and defied South’s seam and spin bowling attack for nearly five-hours by combining well with the tailenders and put North ahead by 142 runs in the first innings that too after the fall of five top order batsmen on Saturday.

South had made 95 in their second essay after losing both the openers at the end of day two. Yashpal’s fighting knock included 12 hits to the fence and two massive sixes, but proved unlucky again as he missed out his much-deserved second ton of the season by just three runs.

Yashpal added useful 71 runs for the sixth wicket after adequately combining with Uday Kaul. U Kaul (33), S Rana (28) and A Mishra (47) made notable contributions towards the end to restore North Zone in the match. For South, persistent Vinay Kumar rewarded with four wickets for his perseverance while his Karnataka new ball partner N.C. Aiyappa bagged three.

SCOREBOARD

South Zone 1st innings: 157
North Zone 1st innings: A. Chopra lbw b Vinay Kumar 37, S. Dhawan c Ravi Teja b Aiyappa 23, K. Goel c M. Vijay b Aiyappa 0, M. Manhas b Vinay Kumar 3, Yashpal Singh c Ravi Teja b Vinay Kumar 97, R. Bhatia c Ashwin b Ojha 8, U. Kaul c M. Vijay b Vinay Kumar 33, S. Rana c Asnodkar b Ashwin 28, A. Mishra b Kalyan Krishna 47, V.S. Malik b Aiyappa 5, A. Thakur (not out) 6

Extras: (b-9, lb-3) 12
Total: 299 in 88.5 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-58, 3-60, 4-65, 5-94, 6-165, 7-211, 8-258, 9-263, 10-299.
South bowling: Vinay Kumar 24-4-87-4, Kalyan Krishna 15.5-4-40-1, Aiyappa 20-1-54-3, Ojha 19-2-79-1, Ashwin 10-2-27-1.

South Zone 2nd innings: D. Ravi Teja c Rana b Malik 15, S. Asnodkar c Thakur b Rana 37, M. Vijay (batting) 24, S. Badrinath (batting) 10

Extras: (lb-3, nb-6) 9
Total: 95 for two wkts in 29 overs
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-78
North bowling: Malik 10-0-52-1, Thakur 7-2-10-0, Bhatia 6-2-13-0, Rana 4-0-9-1, Mishra 1-0-4-0, Manhas 1-0-4-0