East Zone ride on Das' wings

MUMBAI, February 3: East Zone relied on the Das factor heavily for relief on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy game against South Zone at the Wankhede on Sunday. While opener Shiv Sunder Das played a captain's knock of 82 ( 160b, 12x4) and held one end up even as the wickets were falling around him, wicket-keeper batsman Haldar Das, coming in at No 7, is shepherding the lower order with an unfinished, attacking 78 (128b, 13x4).
East Zone, courtesy these contributions, ended the day at a decent 265 for seven after electing to take first strike. For the South Zone, pacers Vinay Kumar, NC Aiyappa and off-spinner R Ashwin picked up two wickets each. Earlier, 21 overs were lost due to early morning rain. Play began an hour and 45 minutes late and finished an hour later.
"If we can stretch our score to 320 plus, with Haldar getting his century and the others putting in their bit, we will be in a good position," said Das. The skipper's confidence stems from the reputation of his seam attack and a wicket that is aiding pace bowlers with both bounce and seam movement. In fact, the ball moved around so much on Sunday that it seemed surprising that Das did not put the opposition in.
Das himself did the maximum to support his decision, spending a good 241 minutes on the crease in a knock that should breath some sort of life in his comeback aspirations. There were two national selectors, Bhupinder Singh Senior and Sanjay Jagdale watching the game.
SCOREBOARD
East Zone (1st innings): SS Das c M Vijay b Ashwin 82, A Das lbw Vinay Kumar 0, A Majumdar c M Vijay b Aiyappa 19, N Behera c Reddy b Aiyappa 8, M Vardhan c M Vijay b Vinay Kumar 20, PJ Das c Asnodkar b Ashwin 14, H Das batting 78, T Saha c Ojha b Vijay Kumar 29, D Mohanty batting 6. Extras (lb 4, nb 5) 9.
Total (for 7 wkts) 265.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-46, 3-64, 4-102, 5-134, 6-170, 7-241.
Bowling: Vinay Kumar 15-4-64-2, Aiyappa 15-1-60-2, Vijay Kumar 16-5-
38-1, Ojha 18-3-48-3, Ashwin 13-1-48-2, Badrinath 2-1-3-0.
Kaif hits 64 for Central Zone
VADODARA: A solid knock of 64 runs by captain Mohammed Kaif helped the Central Zone score 238 for seven on the opening day of their four-day Duleep Trophy cricket tie against visiting side England Lions on Sunday. The Uttar Pradesh right-hander hit 13 boundaries facing 121 balls and spent about 150 minutes at crease. Central were asked to bat after England Lions captain E D Joyce won the toss.
Brief Scores:
Central Zone (1st Innings): 238 for 7 (Mohammad Kaif 64, Faiz Fazal 37, Vineet Saxena 34, Graham Onions 2-71, Alan Richardson 2-32).