S Zone placed at comfortable 281 for nine

Indore, Oct 19 (UNI) A third wicket partnership for 87 runs between Y Venugopal Rao (69) and S Badrinath (42) helped place South Zone at a comfortable 281 runs for 9 against West Zone on the first day of the Duleep trophy match at Usha Raje Cricket Ground here today.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, S Zone began on a disastrous note losing 3 wickets for a paltry 96 runs, which included skipper VVS Laxman, who was run out at 15. Opener Robin Uthappa scored 57 runs before he was stumped by Parthiv Patel giving R Pawar a wicket on the team total of 96 runs.

Venugopal Rao and S Badrinath steadied the innings with a gritty partnership adding 87 runs for the third wicket.

S Badrinath compiled 42 runs before he was dismissed at the team score of 183, while Venugopal Rao departed at the team score of 228 runs. Since then, wickets fell at regular interval and the team scored 281-run wickets at the first day's end with S Sreesanth batting at 5 and P P Ojha at 3.

Zaheer Khan scalped three wickets, while Rajesh Pawar and S Bahutule claimed two each. Siddatha took one wicket.

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