Sourabh Tiwary (145) completed his well-deserved century and East Zone posted 267 against South Zone on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy semifinal at ACA-VDCA Stadium on Monday. South Zone, in reply, were struggling at 134 for 5. Resuming at overnight score of 84, Tiwary reached his century to take East past the 200-mark. Tiwary’s innings came to end when left spinner Aushik Srinivas had him caught by Manish Pandey. Tiwary struck 17 fours and two sixes in his 429-minute stay.
South Zone got off to a reasonable start. Left-hander Abhinav Mukund and Robin Uthappa shared 69 runs before both the batsmen fell at the same score. Saxena castled Mukund’s stumps while Uthappa was snapped behind off Samantray. Three runs later, R Prasanna was trapped in front by Ashok Dinda. There was fightback of sorts when Manish Pandey (31) and Amit Verma (22 no) were involved in a 44-run stand. But Samantray broke the pair castling Pandey’s stumps. Samantray dealt a double by sending back Binny to have South in trouble at 115 for 5. Samantray was the most successful bowler with 3 for 22.
Scoreboard: East Zone (1st innings): Vardhan c Pandey b Mithun 5, Jadhav c Amit b Vinay 1, N Behera c Vinay b Binny 11, Majumdar c Gautam b Binny 4, Tiwary c Pandey b Aushik 145, Samantray c C Gautam b Mithun 6, S Gautam c C Gautam b Appanna 11, Mohanty c Binny b Mithun 58, Saxena c C Gautam b Binny 0, Dinda c Pandey b Mithun 6, Quadri (not out) 4, Extras (b-8, lb-6, w-1, nb-1) 16. Total (all out; 106.3 overs) 267. FoW: 1-5, 2-15, 3-21, 4-21, 5-38, 6-66, 7-219, 8-243, 9-254
Bowling: Vinay 22-3-45-1, Mithun 24-4-68-4, Binny 20-7-46-3, Prasanna 2-2-0-0, Appanna 18-5-40-1, Aushik 12.3-0-25-1, Amit 5-0-21-0, Abhinav 3-0-8-0.
South Zone (1st innings): Abhinav b Saxena 19, Uthappa c S Gautam b Samantray 0, R Prasanna lbw Dinda 2, Pandey b Samantray 31, Amit (batting) 22, Binny lbw Samantray 0, C Gautam (batting) 8, Extras (b-4, nb-8) 12. Total (5 wkts; 48 overs) 134. FoW: 1-69, 2-69, 3-71, 4-115, 5-115.
Bowling: Dinda 11.5-1-58-1, Mohanty 13-3-29-0, Samantray 14.1-7-22-3, Saxena 9-3-21-1.