Duleep Trophy: Central Zone reply strongly

Bengaluru: Central Zone top-order batters, led by Danish Malewar, carried the team to 229 for two, giving a solid reply to West Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Friday.

Shubham Sharma (60) and skipper Rajat Patidar (47) were batting at stumps after Central bagged four quick wickets to end West’s first innings at 438. Central need a further 209 runs to take an innings lead.

Malewar, who made a double hundred in the quarterfinal against North-East Zone, took his time to settle down before making 76, as his opening partner Ayush Pandey (40 off 59 balls) went off the blocks briskly.

Meanwhile, Narayan Jagadeesan missed out on a well deserved double hundred by three runs as South Zone reached an imposing first innings score of 536 despite a dull second day in their semi-final against North Zone.

Starting the day on 297/3, South Zone nearly batted the entire second day (88.2 overs) and managed only 239 runs while losing the remaining wickets. Jagadeesan (197, 352 balls) hit 16 boundaries and three sixes before

getting run-out.