Nov 1, 2014
Central Zone reached 344 for the loss of seven wickets at the end of the first session of play against South Zone in the final match of the ongoing Duleep Trophy at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi. Robin Bist was the star of Central’s second innings as he brought up his second hafl-century of the match, and his 23rd overall, although the rest of the batting lineup was crumbling around him. Ali Murtaza was unbeaten on a score of 39 from 59 balls. The pick of the South Zone bowlers in the first session was Pragyan Ojha, who took two wickets to dismiss Mahesh Rawat and Arindam Ghosh.
Central Zone resumed on the fourth day from their overnight score of 214 for the loss of four wickets, with Bist and Mahesh Rawat walking to the crease. Mahesh Rawat faced the first over of the day bowled by skipper R Vinay Kumar, sending the fourth delivery for a boundary towards the square leg boundary. The second over was a wicket-maiden bowled by Pragyan Ojha, who did the damage in the 66th over when he removed Mahesh Rawat for 16.
Arindam Ghosh arrived at the crease for some time, and began attacking the Southern attack soon. In the meantime, Bist brought up a personal milestone, when he completed 4,000 career First Class runs after taking three quick runs to reach 34 runs from 84 balls. The two brought up 40 runs from 71 deliveries and were going strong, when South managed to force themselves back into the game, courtesy two brilliant pieces of wicket-keeping by Dinesh Karthik, who stumped both Ghosh and skipper Piyush Chawla in a space of nine deliveries.
At 260 for seven , South looked likely to wipe out the rest of Central’s batting order. Ali Murtaza, who walked down to bat after Chawla’s dismissal, had different plans however. Murtaza, along with Bist, added an unbeaten partnership for the eighth wicket, a blessing for Central Zone as they went past the 300-run mark, and with the two at the crease, could possibly target the 400-run mark.
A lead of 241 runs is not a competitive one at the moment, as South Zone’s batting performance in the first innings would suggest. Even though Central have lost seven wickets in their innings so far, the pair of Bist and Murtaza seem capable of keeping the run-flow going in the second session as well.
Brief scores:
Central Zone 276 and 344 for 7 (Faiz Fazal 72, Jalaj Saxena 71, Robin Bist 87*; Pragyan Ojha 3 for 78) lead South Zone 379 (Lokesh Rahul 185, Hanuman Vihari 75; Ali Murtaza 4 for 59, Pankaj Singh 3 for 67) by 241 runs.
Duleep Trophy 2014-15 final: Central Zone reach 344/7 at Lunch; Robin Bist unbeaten on 87
