VRV puts North in driver's seat

Punjab's brawny pacer V R V Singh came to the fore for North Zone team to put them in driver's seat after picking up his maiden five-wicket haul. VRV helped his side to bundle out East Zone for a scanty 143 and take a big first innings lead of 217 runs after the end of the second day’s play of the Duleep Trophy match played at the Race Course ground here on Tuesday.

The speedster bowled 12 overs in succession, returning with a figures of five for 59, to craft miserable conditions for the East Zone batsmen, who had no clue whatsoever of the fine seam bowling produced by him.

VRV has almost taken his team into the finals of the Duleep Trophy championship. It was his first five-wicket haul of the championship. His stupendous performance put East Zone reeling and a lead of 217 runs for North after posting 360 in their first essay.

Though, North could easily enforce the follow-on, but their skipper Mitthun Manhas opted to bat again, giving rest to his bowlers and fielders, ending the day one at 109 for the loss of two wickets in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Karan Goel.

Aakash Chopra scored an unbeaten half-century (56 runs, 80 balls, 9x4) and skipper Manhas (12) were the two not out batsmen at the end of the day's play.

Former India opener S.S. Das looked good but couldn’t last long, Wriddhiman Saha was the lone player who provided some resistance for the East team. Saha scored an unbeaten strokeful fine half-century 52 of 91balls that included nine boundaries.

Leggies Amit Mishra and Chetanya Nanda picked up two wickets each to see through the tail. East Zone’s Niranjan Behera did not come out to bat as he sustained fracture on his finger on Monday. He won’t be able to play further since the doctor has advised him two weeks rest

Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 260 for 7, North Zone added another 100 runs with the help of their remaining batsmen. Uday Kaul missed out a likely half-century as he got out on 48 but Chetanya Nanda's run-a-ball 58 helped North to put up a fighting total of 360. Nanda smashed 9 fours in his 59-ball rapid knock.

SCOREBOARD

North Zone First Innings: A. Chopra b Paul 10, S. Dhawan c H. Das b Mohanty 18, K. Goel b Paul 0, M. Manhas c sub (Sourav Sarkar) b Behera 88, Yashpal Singh c H. Das b Paul 25, R. Bhatia c S.S. Das b Mohanty 24, U. Kaul c A. Das b Paul 48, A. Mishra c W. Saha b Paul 52, C. Nanda b T. Saha 58, Malik b T. Saha 13, V.R.V. Singh (not out) 20

Extras: 4 (nb-4) Total: 360 all out in 108 overs Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-28, 3-28, 4-82, 5-161, 6-183, 7-259, 8-289, 9-314 and 10- 360

East Zone bowling: Mohanty 18-9-39-2, Bose 21-2-65-0, Paul 28-6-106-5, T. Saha 21-2-102-2, Behera 17-1-38-1, Majumdar 3-0-10-0.

East Zone First Innings: S.S. Das c Kaul b V.R.V. Singh 23, A. Das lbw b V.R.V. Singh 7, A. Majumdar b V.R.V. Singh 8, W. Saha (not out) 56, M. Vardhan lbw b V.R.V. Singh 0, H. Das b V.R.V. Singh 8, T. Saha c Nanda b Mishra 4, D. Mohanty b Mishra 8, R. Bose lbw b Nanda 4, S.S. Paul c Dhawan b Nanda 0, N. Behera (absent hurt).

Extras: 25 (b-6, lb-2, nb-17) Total: 143 all out 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.

North Zone bowling: V.R.V. Singh 12-2-59-5, Malik 10-1-50-0, Mishra 11-2-26-2, Nanda 0.3-0-0-2.

North Zone Second Innings: A. Chopra (batting) 56, S. Dhawan lbw b Mohanty 4, K. Goel c H. Das b Bose 34, M. Manhas (batting 12)

Extras: 3 (lb-1, nb-2) Total: 109 for two wickets in 28 overs Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-91. East Zone bowling: Mohanty 5-0-15-1, Bose 8-2-31-1, T. Saha 9-1-44-0, Paul 4-2-8-0, Majumdar 2-0-10-0.