Day 2 of the East Zone versus Central Zone Duleep Trophy semi-final, played at the Centre of Excellence, had its share of thrills and spills. And it was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who stole the limelight with his sparkling 92.
However, despite the left-hand batter’s pyrotechnics and Abhimanyu Easwaran’s enterprising 69, East Zone lost their way and were bundled out for 266. Incidentally, Central Zone were also dismissed for 266 in their first innings. In their second innings, Central Zone were in a spot of bother at 45/3 at the close of play.
The day will be remembered for Vaibhav’s action-packed innings. Right from the time he edged one off Yash Thakur in the very first over, the 15-year-old was intent on taking the attack to the opposition. He crunched four fours and two sixes off Yash. Aryan Pandey and Arshad Khan, the other two seamers, weren’t spared either. The highlight of his strokeplay was a lofted drive down the ground.
Harsh Dubey and Saransh Jain were also smacked for sixes. Although Saransh once beat him in the air, the point fielder dropped a sitter. Ultimately, while attempting a slog sweep off Harsh, Vaibhav found the man in the deep. He became the youngest cricketer to score a fifty in the history of the Duleep Trophy.
After Sooryavanshi’s dismissal, Central Zone clawed their way back into the game. Easwaran, who had played the supporting role to Vaibhav, lost his wicket to Aryan. Barring the openers, only Sudip Kumar Gharami crossed the 20-run mark for East Zone.
Yash bowled with a fair amount of zest and bagged three wickets. He was the one who took the key wicket of Ishan Kishan. Aryan also took three wickets, while Dubey returned fine figures of 4 for 63.
Mukesh Kumar and Mohammed Shami then combined to leave Central Zone three down in their second innings.
Brief Scores: Central Zone 266 (Rinku Singh 60, Aryan Juyal 46; Abhijit Sarkar 3-38) and 45/3 (Mukesh Kumar 2-14) lead East Zone 266 (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 92, Abhimanyu Easwaran 69; Harsh Dubey 4-63) by 45 runs.
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