da bet vitoria： Central Zone wasted little time in playing themselves into a positionof considerable strength on the opening day of their Duleep Trophymatch against South Zone at the Bhanasheb Bandokar stadium in Goa onThursday
Staff Reporter01-Feb-2001Central Zone wasted little time in playing themselves into a positionof considerable strength on the opening day of their Duleep Trophymatch against South Zone at the Bhanasheb Bandokar stadium in Goa onThursday. After dismissing South for 141, Central replied with 178 fortwo at stumps.It was another poor day for South Zone who are lying at the bottom ofthe points table. Winning the toss, South Zone were rocked by aninspired spell by Devendra Bundela. The Madhya Pradesh seam bowler,who turns 24 later this month, removed openers Sridharan Sriram (14)and A Nandakishore (2) off successive deliveries and got the prizescalp of VVS Laxman (10), all in his first five overs. Hemang Badani(5) and wicketkeeper VST Naidu (4) followed a little later and SouthZone were reeling at 57 for five in the 19th over.Then followed the only stand of note with Vijay Bharadwaj and SunilJoshi (17) adding 47 runs for the sixth wicket off 10 overs. But theremaining batsmen offered little resistance and it was left toBhardwaj to put up a lone battle. The former Indian player who hadcome in the tenth over when Bundela was on the rampage, was last outin the 43rd over for a gallant 50. He batted a shade over 2-1/2 hours,faced 109 balls and hit eight fours. Bundela finished with four for 58while Jai Yadav picked up three for 46.Central Zone lost an early wicket through the run out of Jai Yadav.But Gagan Khoda and skipper Amay Khurasiya put Central Zone back ontrack with a second wicket partnership of 98 runs off 19.1 oversbefore the latter was out for 51. The former Indian batsman faced just49 balls and hit eight fours and a six in his aggressive knock. MohdKaif joined Khoda and the two placed Central Zone in the lead andcarried on unbeaten still stumps. By close, the third wicket pair hadadded 72 runs off 21.5 overs. Khoda was within striking distance ofhis hundred. He has compiled his unbeaten 87 off 148 balls with tenfours and three sixes. Kaif is keeping him company on 28. The muchvaunted South Zone attack, with six bowlers who have played for thecountry, picked up just one wicket between them in 45 overs.