There were partnerships aplenty, but none substantial enough to take Central Zone to safety on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi on Wednesday (October 29).
Robin Bist, the Rajasthan batsman, held fort for over two sessions to make a combative 79, even as the other batsmen were guilty of frittering away starts, courtesy injudicious strokes. As a result, Central, who opted to bat, were left to play catch up in the final session as they ended the day at 237 for 7 when play was suspended after 87 overs due to fading light.
Central found scoring difficult on a surface where R Vinay Kumar and Abhimanyu Mithun, the Karnataka seamers, got the ball to move both ways. The openers survived a testing spell in which only 18 runs were scored in the first hour of play. Vinay beat the bat on a number of occasions before getting a lucky break when Jalaj Saxena was wrongly given out caught behind for 2 in the 17th over.
Bist brought with him the calmness Central needed as they attempted to up the scoring after the drinks interval, but Faiz Fazal didn’t help matters by tying himself down, patting bad balls repeatedly to the fielders.
The body blows were dealt by B Aparajith, the offspinner who dismissed the well set Fazal (49) and Naman Ojha, who was coming into the game on the back of four successive first-class centuries, in the space of five deliveries to give South Zone an opening.
Fazal’s 127-ball vigil came to an end when he slapped a short and wide delivery to Hanuma Vihari at backward point, while Ojha’s attempt to cleat the infield resulted in a simple catch to Vinay, the South skipper, at mid-off. That meant Central slipped from a comfortable 90 for 1 to 94 for 3 in the middle session.
Ashok Menaria strode out with intent and looked to take on South’s spinners. Quick to pounce on anything short, he collected seven fours in his 37 and looked good for more before being done in by Vihari’s part-time offspin. A casual attempt at flicking the ball resulted in him overbalancing and Dinesh Karthik effected a smart stumping.
Four balls later, Karthik had another victim, this time a catch off Shreyas Gopal as Mahesh Rawat walked back to the pavilion without scoring. Replays suggested that he was unlucky and the ball had missed the bat by quite some distance.
But the telling blow was still some time away.
Bist, who had done all the hard work, then got out to a stroke he will rue for some time to come. A short ball that ought to have been hit anywhere on the legside was whipped straight to Mithun at midwicket as he walked back with Central’s score reading 189 for 6. Bist hit 12 fours and a six.
Arindam Ghosh (32 not out) helped take the team past the 200-run mark along with Piyush Chawla, the Central captain. But an aerial drive brought about Chawla’s downfall minutes before the scheduled close of play. As it would turn out, that would be the last legitimate delivery on a day in which South would believe they had the upper hand.
Brief Scores:
Central Zone 237/7 in 87 overs (Faiz Fazal 49, Robin Bist 79, Ashok Menaria 37, Arindam Ghosh 32 not out, Piyush Chawla 30; B Aparajith 2-26) v South Zone.
Bist shores up stuttering Central Zone
