North in Command against East

Guwahati, Nov 5 (UNI) Joginder Sharma's swashbuckling century helped North Zone pile up an imposing 504 against East on day two of the Duleep Trophy match at Nehru Stadium here today.

The East ended second day at 22 for two with Test discard Saurav Ganguly batting at 10 and Abhisek Jhunjhunwala on 6.

In front of the duo lies the first target of 304 to save the East from facing a humiliating follow on.

North Zone started the day from 252 for 4 but it belonged to Joginder and his dashing batting which kept the motley crowd of Nehru Stadium enthralled almost the better part of the day.

He put pressure on the East bowlers and scored freely from the beginning, East skipper Sourav Ganguly tried hard with the new ball but opening bowlers could not utilise the situation.

Debasish struck in the 95th over when Yashpal's edge beautifully taken by Deep Dasgupta diving to his right. Yashpal in his 213 minutes innings scored 89 runs with 11 fours and two sixes.

Yashpal's exit could not bring fruit to the East bowlers.

Joginder Sharma continued to score at will. Joginder and Mahesh Rawat played some delightful shot all over the field sending the East into a tizzy.

Mahesh kept the ball on the ground but Joginder cleared the field using long handles to score runs quickly., Rawat and Joginder put 106 runs for the sixth wicket partnership.

Even after departures of Mahesh, 62, Joginder carried on putting the East Zone on the defensive. Joginder scored his second successive century when he straight drove Shiv Sagar Singh.

Joginder's hundred came in only 130 balls with 18 fours and two sixes. Due to Joginder's century, North Scored 504 runs in the first innings.

Score card North Zone (Overnight 252 for 4) Akash Chopra lbw B Debasish Mohanty 12 Gautam Gambhir c Deep Dasgupta b S Lahiri 86 Ranjeet Ricky c Mohanty b S Lahiri 29 Yashpal Singh c Deep Dasgupta B D Mohanty 89 Mahesh Rawat c Deep Dasgupta B A Jhunjhunwalla 62 Joginder Sharma c&B Shivsagar Singh 122 Gagandeep Singh b Rohan Gavaskar 18 Ashish Nehra not out 23 Rajesh Sarma c Saurav b S S Singh 2 Vishal Bhatia b Ashok Dinda 2 Extras B-9,lb-7,nb-22) - 38 Total 504 Fall of wickets 1-29,2-81,3-116,4212,5-298,6-404,7-477,8-481,9-499 Bowling Ashok Dinda 35.5 3 126 1 D Mohanty 19 4 44 2 Saurav Ganguly 9 0 15 0 Sourasish Lahiri 43 5 152 3 Shivsagar Singh 27 2 103 2 Rohan Gavaskar 6 0 31 1 Abhisek Jhunjhunwalla 4 1 17 1 East Zone (Ist Innings) Submoy Das c Gambhir B Gagandeep 1 Shib Sundar Das b Asish Nehera 4 Abhisek Jhunjuwalla batting 6 Saurav Ganguly batting 10 Extras 1 Total 22 for two wickets Fall of wicets 1- 3, 2-5 Bowling Asish Nehra 5.5 0 9 1 Gagandeep Singh 5 2 13 1 UNI XC MT BA DH BST1845