Rajkot/Indore, Jan. 26: Abhishek Nayar’s unbeaten 102 and a 95-ball 77 by Cheteshwar Pujara helped West Zone pile up 425/5 against North Zone on Day One of their Duleep Trophy semifinal at the Madhavrao Scindia grounds here on Tuesday. Rohit Sharma (63) and Parthiv Patel (55) also chipped in with valuable contributions.
Nayar, who cracked 15 fours and three sixes during his 144-ball unbeaten innings, was in company of Ravindra Jadeja (batting 55) at close.
Earlier, West skipper Wasim Jaffer won the toss and opted to bat first. However, he along with his Mumbai teammate Ajinkya Rahane failed to give their team a good start. Jaffer (12) was the first man to depart, followed by Rahane (34).
Parthiv and Cheteshwar did the rescue work and added 97 runs for the third wicket before Manpreet Gony dismissed Patel. Pujara then added another 69 runs with Rohit, before the latter joined hands with Nayar to produce a 64-run stand. Nayar and Jadeja, who struck eight fours during his 96-ball unbeaten stay, added 140 runs for the sixth wicket.
In Indore, Mohammed Kaif led from the front with a patient 112, while Piyush Chawla struck a brisk unbeaten 70 as Central Zone posted 300/7 against South Zone in another semifinal. Put into bat, Central Zone lost Jalaj Saxena (7) and Sanjay Bangar (4) cheaply before a 55-run stand between Kaif (112) and Tanmay Srivastav (42) arrested the slide at the Maharani Usharaje Trust cricket ground. — PTI
