North zone pile up 443; Central 85/2

Jamshedpur, Oct 28: Riding on twin centuries by Mahesh Rawat (115) and Joginder Sharma (103), North Zone piled up 443 all out in the first innings while Central Zone were 85 for two at stumps on the second day of the four-day Duleep trophy tie at the Keenan stadium here today.

TP Singh and Brajesh Singh were batting with 26 and 7 respectively when the play was stopped 34 minutes before the close due to bad light when 13 overs were to be bowled.

Earlier, resuming at 310 for five, overnight not out batsmen Rawat and Sharma continued where they left yesterday as both played all round the wicket to slam tons. All rounder Sharma was plumbed off Murali Karthik just after completing his century which studded with 14 boundaries and one hit over the fence.

Ashish Nehra was out for nought in the same way off Karthik, who struck again to put an end of a fine innings of Rawat which consisted 16 fours.

After dismissal of Rawat, North Zone's innings were folded up soon after the lunch as young leggie Piyush Chawla polished off the tails quickly.

Both the spinners Karthik and Chawla shared three wickets each while J P Yadav bagged a brace and Praveen Kumar and A Rajan took one wicket apiece.

In reply the Central Zone openers Amit Pagnis (15) and S.K.Shukla (24) began the innings slow but steadily as the duo put 43 runs in the opening partnership. But they failed to bulid a big score as Joginder Sharma and V R V Singh struck in quick succession to pick up the wickets of Pagnis and Shukla respectively.

Score Board:- North Zone (First innings): Akash Chopra lbw Praveen Kumar 01 Gautam Gambhir c B Tomar b Yadav 70 R Ricky c Tomar b Rajan 20 Yashpal Singh b Yadav 74 M Manhas b Chawla 02 Mahesh Rawat c T P Singh b Karthik 115 Joginder Sharma LBW Karthik 103 Ashish Nehra LBw Karthik 00 Gagandeep Singh not out 21 V R V Singh b Chawla 12 Rajesh Sharma LBW Chawla 00 Extras ( By 5, LB 10, N B 10) 25 Total (all out in 141 overs) 443 Fall of wickets: 2/1, 58/2, 125/3, 132/4, 211/5, 383/6, 385/7, 422/8, 443/9, 443/10 Bowling: Praveen Kumar 28 7 99 1 J P Yadav 31 13 62 2 A Rajan 13 1 58 1 P Chawla 35 8 106 3 M Karthik 34 5 103 3 Central Zone (1st innings) Amit Pagnis c Rawat B Sharma 15 S K Shukla c Rawat B V R V Singh 24 T P Singh batting 26 B Tomar batting 07 Extras: (by 1, lb 2, nb 10) 13 Total ( for two in 26 overs) 85 Fall of wickets : 43/1, 43/2 Bowling: A Nehra 9 2 19 0 G Singh 6 0 15 0 J Sharma 7 0 20 1 V R V Singh 4 0 28 1

UNI