Arjun rescues South after Akalanka hurricane

Kolkata, Nov 4 (UNI) A tremendous rearguard action from Arjun Yadav saved South Zone the blushes and helped them reach a respectable 266 all out after Sri Lanka A's Akalanka Ganegama wrecked havoc with the top order on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy tie here today.

In a fiery burst of opening spell, Ganegama's raw pace saw the South Zone top order fall apart as the bowler returned Robin Uthappa, VVS Laxman, Venugopal Rao and Ambathi Rayudu and Prasad returned Dinesh Karthik to reduce South Zone to five for 15.

It was at this time that Arjun Yadav walked in and in a tremendous display of dogged batting rescued South Zone from the brink of disister. He remained unbeaten on 133 off 190 balls studded with 13 boundaries and four sixes.

He was given good company by S Badrinath who scored 48 valuable runs and Kaushik Reddy lower in the order with 26 runs.

In reply Sri Lanka A lost opener Michael Vandort for 14 runs to Yo Mahesh. At stumps, Mahela Udawatte was batting on 22 and M Warnapura on naught.

Scoreboard: South Zone Dinesh Karthik b Prasad 5 Robin Uthappa c Samaraweera b Ganegama 6 VVS Laxman c Silva b Ganegama 3 Venugopal Rao b Ganegama 0 S Badrinath c Mubarak b Chandana 48 Ambathi Rayudu c Samaraweera b Ganegama 0 Arjun Yadav not out 133 S Sreesanth run out 19 Yo Mahesh b Chandana 7 Kaushik Reddy b Lashitha 26 P Ojha c Silva b Mubarak 12 Extras (B 1, LB 1) 7 Total (All out in 75.2 overs) 266 Fall of wickets: 1/9 2/13 3/13 4/14 5/14 6/80 7/119 8/134 9/191 Bowling : Ganegama 19-1-71-4 Prasad 13-2-50-1 Lakshitha 8-0-43-1 Chandana 25-4-73-2 Warnapura 3-0-7-0 Mubarak 7.2-0-15-1 Sri Lanka A: Michael Vandort b Mahesh 14 ML Udawatte not out 22 M Warnapura not out 0 Extras: 0 Total: (one wicket in 12 overs) 36 Fall of wickets: 1/32 Bowling Sreeshant 2-0-8-0 K Reddy 4-0-16-0 Yo Mahesh 4-0-7-1 P Ojha 2-0-5-0 UNI BA PC PDS HS1912