Duleep Trophy: Yash Dhull Hammers 193 As North Zone Take Lead vs East

Talented batter Yash Dhull hit a superb 193 decorated with 28 fours and two sixes to power North Zone to 433 for 3 in their first innings at stumps on day three of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final against East Zone on Saturday. Thanks to Dhull's batting heroics, North Zone have taken a first innings lead of 36 runs with seven wickets in hand, and they are in command in the match. After a splendid start to his Ranji Trophy career with a century in both innings for Delhi on debut earlier this year against Tamil Nadu, Dhull made his maiden appearance in the prestigious Duleep Trophy a memorable one with a brilliant ton on Saturday. He missed a double ton by just seven runs.

The highly-rated Dhull, who led India to triumph in the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year, showed his tremendous skills, punishing the East Zone bowlers whenever they erred in line and length.

The 19-year old Dhull faced 243 balls during his stroke-filled innings. He led the North reply as they raced to 100 in the 24th over. He reached to his well-deserved ton from 131 balls with 15 hits to the fence with the team score reading 174 for 1.

He continued to look for runs and found the fence 13 more times in a knock that kept the scoreboard ticking at a brisk pace.

Dhull and Manan Vohra (44) put on 128 runs for the first wicket before Shahbaz Nadeem (1 for 107) got the latter. Dhull then added 192 runs with Dhruv Shorey (81, 163 balls, 9 fours) for the second wicket to bring North closer to the East Zone's first innings score of 397.

After Dhull was bowled by Manishankar Mura Singh for a marathon 193, Shorey and captain Mandeep Singh (34 batting) shared a 28-run stand before he fell.

Mandeep appeared content to play second fiddle as Himanshu Rana went on