Kaif ton is Central to his team’s revival

[1]

Central Zone fought back brilliantly after being pushed to the wall by South Zone on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semi-finals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Saturday. Central are, however, precariously placed at 292 for eight at stumps. Mohammed Kaif was Central’s saviour with an unbeaten 107 (207b, 12x4) — an innings which is, at present, a touch over five hours.

After winning a vital toss, the visitors’ idea to pile a mammoth total went haywire. As expected the Kookaburra ball, which is used in Duleep Trophy fixtures, was darting around during the morning session. Except Kaif, none of Central’s top-order batsmen seemed to know where their off-stump was. They were either slashing hard or trying to flirt around the third stick.

It didn’t take long before this sort of uncertainty cost openers Naman Ojha and Vineet Saxena their wickets. The former was bowled by pacer Abhimanyu Mithun with a peach of a delivery. Naman had to pay dearly for shouldering arms to a ball that came back in. Later, left-arm spinner KP Appanna held on to a blinder at backward point to send Mohnish Mishra packing.

With just a couple of overs left for lunch, Appanna was back in action. On this occasion, he accounted for 2011-12 Ranji Trophy’s top-scorer — Robin Bist. The right-handed batsman played on to his pads before the ball found the leg stump. The steep bounce generated on that particular delivery seemed to have caught Bist unawares. Eventually, The lunch wouldn’t have tasted great for Central, who had been tottering at 91 for four in 34 overs.

Meanwhile, Kaif was looking solid with both his drives and the back-foot punches. He built a commendable fifth-wicket stand of 42 with Parvinder Singh (22). The Indian discard brought out the best in him to fight out a grim situation and register his fourth consecutive Duleep Trophy ton which came off 203 deliveries.

Kaif later joined hands with skipper Piyush Chawla (52, 54b, 5x4, 3x6) to steady the ship.
Piyush, in particular, played a stupendous counter-attacking knock. All the three sixes that he cleared over the arc were easy on the eye. For South, medium pacer Stuart Binny was the most successful bowler with three for 47.

SCORECARD
Central Zone (1st innings): Naman Ojha b Abhimanyu 9, Vineet Saxena c Karthik b Binny 19, Mohd. Kaif (batting) 108, Mohnish Mishra c Appanna b Binny 15, Robin Bist b Appanna 5, Parvinder Singh c Karthik b Yo Mahesh 22, Jalaj Saxena c Karthik b Abhimanyu 29, Piyush Chawla c Uthappa b Binny 52, Bhuvneshwar Kumar c Verma b Kaushik 7, T. Sudhindra (batting) 10. Extras (b1, lb8, n7): 16. Total (for eight wickets in 90 overs): 292.
FoW: 1-25, 2-52, 3-81, 4-90, 5-132, 6-180, 7-253, 8-268.
Bowling: Abhimanyu 17–3–80–2; Kaushik 17–4–47–1; Yo Mahesh 17–6–42–1; Binny 15–4–47-3; Appanna 24–4–67–1.