West Zone gives strong reply to England Lions 355

VADODARA, Febraury 12: Giving a strong reply to England Lions first innings total of 355 runs, West Zone ended the second day of their Duleep Trophy cricket match at the Motibag ground at 187 for one.
After losing opener Sahil Kukreja, who failed to open his account, both Wasim Jaffer and Ajinkya Rahane stood like a rock and put on unbeaten second wicket partnership of 187 runs.
The partnership raised the hope for the West Zone to pile up a huge total and deny England Lions a chance to enter the knockout stage of the tournament.
Rahane made 93 (4x18) facing 154 balls in 225 minutes while Jaffer's 82 (4x13) came in 227 minutes in 181 balls.
England captain Michael Yardy tried as many as six bowlers to break this pair but remained unsuccessful.
Earlier, resuming at 273 for four, England Lions were all out for 355 runs in their first inning.
Both the overnight batsmen Yardy and Graham Onion added 49 more runs this morning before Yardy was clean bowled by S.Jobanputra. Yardy made 169 runs studded with 23 fours.
The fifth wicket partnership between Yardy and Onions added 55 runs.
Onions soon followed Yardy and the remaining batsmen failed to offer any resistance to the West Zone bowlers and the team was bowled out before lunch.
Both the spinners Rakesh Dhruve (3/53) and S Jobanputra (2/44) bowled beautifully to restrict the visitors.