North Zone bag two points in drawn match Vs Central Zone

Jamshedpur, Oct 30 (UNI) North Zone earned two points by virtue of first innings lead as the match against Central zone ended in a draw on the concluding day of the four-day Duleep trophy tie at the Keenan stadium here today.

Chasing 375 runs to win, Central Zone were 102 for four in their second innings when the play was called off early due to bad light.

North Zone resumed at overnight 72 for one and declared the second innings 219 for nine after lunch.

North Zone took 155 lead in the first innings.

Gautam Gambhir, who was 33 not out overnight with Ravneet Ricky (2 not out) played cautiously and Gambhir hit his second half century after scoring 70 in the first innings.Ricky was out for 17.

Gambhir, who was overlooked by the national selectors for the South Africa tour despite a good demestic season, however, missed the ton and was out for 84 as leggie Piyush Chawala took the important wicket. The southpaw hit ten fours facing 162 balls.

Gambhir was comfortable against the pace and spin attack of Praveen Kumar and Chawla, who captured five and four wickets giving away 42 and 93 runs respectively.

Yashpal Singh scored 32, while captian Mithun Manhas(22) again failed to put up a big score. First innings centurions Mahesh Rawat and Joginder Singh were also out cheaply scoring 0 and 12 runs respectively.

Central Zone skipper J P Yadav entertained the handful spectators with some big hits and scored 46 off 40 balls with the help of three huge sixes and five hits to the fence before being caught by Yashpal Singh off Rajesh Sharma.

Opener Amit Pagnis and Abbas Ali remained not out for 27 and two when the stumps were drawn.

With the draw, Cetral Zone failed to get any point from the two matches. The match between Central zone and East zone held in Gwalior also ended in a draw as East zone could not win due to rains and bad light.

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