West Zone 220 and 149 for 3 (Suryakumar 52, Pujara 50*, Sarfaraz 6*) lead Central Zone 128 (Rinku 48, Jurel 46, Nagwaswalla 5-74) by 241 runs
On a day where as many as 15 wickets fell in Alur, West Zone drove themselves into a commanding position by stumps on day two of the Duleep Trophy semi-final against Central Zone.
As he did in the first innings, Pujara battled hard and lent solidity to the innings. He will hope to build on his unbeaten 50 on day three along with Sarfaraz Khan, who will be keen to make amends for his first-innings duck.
Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz’s Mumbai team-mate, however, couldn’t impress as he fell for a 26-ball 25 to go along with his 26 in the first innings. Shaw was cleaned up by Yash Thakur for the second time in the game. While he was out to a nipbacker that beat his inside edge in the first innings, Shaw was out shouldering arms in the second.
North Zone 198 and 51 for 2 (Kalsi 21*, Prabhsimran 6*) lead South Zone 195 (Agarwal 76, Varma 46, Jayant 3-38, Arora 3-57) by 54 runs
On a see-saw day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where rain and bad light had the players indoors for much of the afternoon, North Zone kept themselves in the game after their bowling unit combined to skittle South Zone for 195.
Agarwal struck a 115-ball 76 and was the first wicket to fall. Washington Sundar, who managed just 12, fell soon. Varma’s wicket in the next over turned the tide. R Sai Kishore hit 21 to narrow the deficit, before Arora picked up two of the last three wickets to help North Zone secure a three-run lead.
South Zone struck twice before Ankit Kalsi and first-innings top scorer Prabhsimran Singh ensured no further damage as North ended on 51 for 2, effectively 54 ahead with two full days remaining.
