Ganguly fails with bat but East better placed against Central Zone

Gwalior, Oct 19 (UNI) Sourav Ganguly did not help his Team India comeback bid with a 16-run knock but under his stewardship, East Zone, after scoring 245 in their first innings and then reducing the hosts to 40 for three, seemed to have a clear edge in their Duleep Trophy match here today.

After Ganguly won and opted to bat first, East Zone received early setbacks with their top three batsmen -- Shiv Sundar Das (0), Shubhomoy Das (1) and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (4) returning to the pavilion with the score reading just 16.

Rohan Gavaskar (106 off 136 balls, 15x4) then joined hands with Ganguly to steady the innings. But before the duo could look threatening, Sandeep Singh struck a crucial blow when he had Ganguly caught by Kulamani Parida after the former national captain had scored 16 runs off 30 balls that included three hits to the fence.

Team India discard JP Yadav (5/95) then ran through the East middle and lower order to emerge as the pick of the Central Zone bowlers. Only Debashis Mohanty (46 lff 132 balls, 6x4) provided some support for Gavaskar, who eventually fell to Piyush Chawla after a brilliant ton that propped up the East innings.

East bowlers, however, showed some signs of urgency once their innings folded up and after Ranadeb Bose drew the first blood by removing Amit Pagnis (7) who perished caught behind, Amit Dinda's double strike left Central Zone reeling at 40 for three in 14 overs when stumps were drawn.

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