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Central crushes South

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Central Zone continued its climb to the top with a clinical five-wicket victory over South Zone in their Deodhar Trophy match at the Rajiv Gandhi international stadium here on Thursday.

Central, unconquered so far, took its third bonus point to improve its tally to 15 from three outings.

Astute captaincy by Mohammad Kaif ensured the game never went out of Central’s grip. South, without the services of V.V.S. Laxman and S. Sreesanth, opted to bat on a strip that was a shade slow.

Hemmed in by tight fielding, the batsmen failed to get the drift, evident from several of them perishing through edges or miscued shots. The first to exit was Robin Uthappa, an outer edge snapped up by Suresh Raina in the slips.

Next to go was Bharath Chipli, picked up by Piyush Chawla at midwicket.

Skipper S. Badrinath didn’t last too long either, pouched by Praveen Kumar at mid-on.

Earlier, the Indian paceman sent the openers packing, his splendid showing with the ball embellished by the two catches he took.

When Dinesh Karthik departed, after a half-hearted jab to Praveen at short mid-on, South was stuttering at 41 for four.

The lone sentinel against this slide was Rahul Dravid, whose two copy-book cover drives in the very first over he faced off Sandeep Singh, showcased his class.

Holding fort with the former Indian skipper was Arjun Yadav, who flirted with danger now and then but nonetheless notched up a fortuitous 45.

But for their 56-run partnership, South’s batting was brittle, tailender Kalyan Krishna’s six over long-off offering little solace.

Practical approach

In contrast to South’s tardy progress, the Central batsmen adopted a practical approach to their target, at the rate of a boundary an over.

That was stepped up to two when the total crossed 100.

Along the way, top scorer Faiz Fazal (58, 95b, 8x4) enjoyed two reprieves, courtesy South wicketkeeper Karthik, who early in the innings couldn’t hold on to a low chance.

Later, with Fazal on 38, Karthik spilt the ball when attempting to stump the left-hander who was way out of the crease.

Piyush held one end up and as the target neared, Rohit Sharma used the long handle, his second six bringing Central victory.

The scores:

South: B. Chipli c Piyush bt Praveen Kumar 3, R. Uthappa c Raina b Praveen Kumar 1, R. Dravid c Sandeep b Praveen Gupta 51, S. Badrinath c Praveen Kumar b Rajesh Kanojia 9, D. Karthik c Praveen Kumar b Rajesh Kanojia 0, Arjun Yadav c N. Ojha b Rajesh Kanojia 45, C. Raghu b Piyush 2, Vinay Kumar b Piyush 3, S. Bandekar c N. Ojha b Piyush 20, Kalyan Krishna (not out) 15, P. Ojha c Sandeep b Raina 5; Extras (b-3, lb-2, w-4): 9; Total (in 46.4 overs): 163.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-17, 3-35, 4-41, 5-97, 6-105, 7-120, 8-122, 9-148.

Central bowling: Praveen Kumar 9-2-11-2, Sandeep 9-0-27-0, Rajesh Kanojia 8.2-1-29-3, Praveen Gupta 9-0-42-1, Piyush 10-0-47-3, Raina 1.2-0-2-1.

Central: Faiz Fazal c P. Ojha b Badrinath 58, N. Ojha c Karthik b Kalyan Krishna 29, S. Raina c Badrinath b Vinay 2, Mohd. Kaif c Yadav b P. Ojha 16, H. Sagar st. Karthik b P. Ojha 2, Piyush (not out) 33, Rohit Sharma (not out) 21; Extras (lb-2, w-1): 3; Total (for five wkts. in 36.3 overs): 164.

Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-52, 3-88, 4-99, 5-140.

South bowling: Vinay 9.3-1-41-1, Bandekar 4-0-25-0, Kalyan Krishna 5-0-26-1, P. Ojha 9-1-24-2, Raghu 7-1-29-0, Badrinath 2-0-17-1.

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