Central Zone benefited from Naman Ojha’s responsible double hundred and notched up a huge total of 538 runs in its first innings in the Duleep Trophy semifnal match against North Zone at the PCA Stadium here on Thursday.
North gave a sound reply by registering 130 for two, with captain Gautam Gambhir (68, 108b, 10x4) and Yuvraj Singh (25, 58b) sharing an unbroken third wicket stand of 70 runs at close on the second day.
Ojha, enjoying a dream run in his career, resumed his innings from an unbeaten overnight score of 122 and rode his luck to get over the early tentativeness. Good grasp of situation
The 31-year-old Madhya Pradesh wicketkeeper-batsman had a good grasp of the situation. He curtailed his strokeplay to anchor the Central innings and allowed other batsmen to bat freely.
After the departure of Ashok Menaria, who added just nine runs to his overnight score of 53 before becoming Rishi Dhawan’s third victim, Ojha forged another crucial partnership of 72 runs with skipper Piyush Chawla (34, 68b, 78m, 3x4, 2x6).
Ojha (217, 348b, 468m, 23x4, 3x6) hit nine boundaries on Thursday, most of them on the leg side, and a six, as he added 95 runs to his previous day’s score. He danced down the track to lift Yuzvendra Chahal for a straight six to celebrate his double hundred as well as his team’s 500-plus total.
In the last four first class innings (in three matches), Ojha has scored four centuries, including two double hundreds. His last double century (219 not out), which happened to be his highest score, had come against Australia ‘A’ in Brisbane. Ojha, caught at long-off by Chahal off the bowling of Parveez Rasool, was the ninth Central man to get out.
More disciplinedNorth bowlers gave a more disciplined performance on the second day. The spinners, Chahal and Rasool, bowled in tandem to share majority of the workload. Chahal attacked to snare three Central batsmen, while Rasool bowled a tight line to claim two wickets.
Beginning its long chase, North lost opener Jiwanjot Singh early. However, the arrival of Virender Sehwag delighted the home camp.
Sehwag handsomely drove Ishwar Pandey through the cover twice for boundaries in an over. The graceful strokemaker picked Pandey again for special treatment, cracking three more fours — one on the off-side, the second one past the bowler and another on the on-side.
Sehwag raced to a 22-ball 32 before inside-edging Pankaj Singh onto his stumps.
Gambhir batted sensibly, playing the ball on merit. He gathered boundaries through some nicely-timed cuts and then drove Piyush Chawla to the deep-midwicket ropes to reach his half-century.
The scores:
Central Zone — 1st innings: Faiz Fazal c Saini b Dhawan 22, Jalaj Saxena c Saini b Dhawan 110, Robin Bist b Beigh 20, Naman Ojha c Chahal b Rasool 217, Ashok Menaria c Chahal b Dhawan 62, Mahesh Rawat c Sehwag b Beigh 4, Piyush Chawla c Sehwag b Chahal 34, Karn Sharma lbw b Chahal 27, Kuldeep Yadav c & b Chahal 21, Ishwar Pandey (not out) 0, Pankaj Singh b Rasool 0; Extras (b-3, lb-7, nb-11): 21; Total (in 145.4 overs): 538.
Fall of wickets: 1-55, 2-97, 3-237, 4-361, 5-384, 6-456, 7-498, 8-536, 9-538.
North Zone bowling: Samiullah Beigh 19-0-100-2, Parvinder Awana 21-6-56-0, Rishi Dhawan 32-3-123-3, Parveez Rasool 30.4-4-89-2, Yuzvendra Chahal 39-5-150-3, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-10-0.
North Zone — 1st innings: Jiwanjot Singh lbw b Pandey 2, Gautam Gambhir (batting) 68, Virender Sehwag b Pankaj 32, Yuvraj Singh (batting) 25; Extras (lb-3): 3; Total (for two wkts. in 34 overs): 130.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-60.
Central Zone bowling: Pankaj Singh 9-2-25-1, Ishwar Pandey 8-2-37-1, Kuldeep Yadav 7-1-29-0, Piyush Chawla 4-0-20-0, Jalaj Saxena 4-1-4-0, Karn Sharma 2-0-12-0.
