Duleep Trophy: West Zone Big Guns Fail To Fire As Central In Control

Central Zone bowlers led by captain Shivam Mavi (4/43) silenced the big guns in the West Zone batting line-up to restrict them to 216 for 8 and take control of the proceedings on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal in Alur on Wednesday. The lone point of resistance for West came from Atit Sheth who made a composed 74 off 129 balls. West Zone entered the match as overwhelming favourites, courtesy the presence of Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw and Sarfaraz Khan in their line-up.

It also might have been a reason for West to elect batting after winning the toss despite the largely overcast conditions at the KSCA Oval. But none of them fired as West would have desired.

Shaw and captain Priyank Panchal started on a confident note, and they had the assistance of fortune as well. Shaw was given a life on 16 when Vivek Singh dropped him at first slip off pacer Yash Thakur.

However, left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar, who bagged eight wickets in the quarterfinals against East Zone, jettisoned Shaw.

The Mumbaikar's punch was grabbed at silly point by Dhruv Jorel after a short juggle, and Shaw had to depart rather unwillingly.

The dismissal opened the flood gate as West lost wickets at regular intervals. Suryakumar was also given a reprieve on 7 as Vivek dropped his second catch of the match, this time off Shivam Mavi.

But Suryakumar was unable to exploit the opportunity as a swat away from the body off the very next ball ended in the hands of Jorel at slips.

Sarfaraz came to this match riding on a mountain of runs that he had scored over the last three domestic seasons. But on this day, all he could do was last for a 12-ball nought, dragging a Mavi delivery back onto his stumps.

Pujara made a 102-ball 28