Ganguly slams unbeaten ton, East 215 for 4

Guwahati, Nov 6 (UNI) A leaner, fitter Sourav Ganguly finally got his mojo back and slammed an unbeaten 118 to help East Zone reach 215 for four at stumps on day three of the Duleep Trophy tie against North Zone here today.

Undaunted by last night's twin blasts in the city, which almost brought the curtain down on the tie, Ganguly lived up to the expectations and showed tremendous application even though his side still needs 89 runs to avoid follow-on after their rivals had scored 504 in their first essay.

Team India discard Deep Dasgupta was batting with Ganguly at 22.

Ashish Nehra, also trying to make a comeback to the national team, did his bit to trouble Ganguly with couple of rising deliveries but Ganguly was soon in his elements, displaying his vintage form.

After the first drink, it was Ganguly versus North as the East were trying to avoid a follow on.

Resuming at 22/2 in reply to North's mammoth total of 504, the East depended heavily on their skipper and Ganguly seized the initiative and played a patient 239-ball knock, which included 11 fours and three huge sixes.

East suffered the first jolt when Nehra removed Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (32) and then allrounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla (15) fell to Rajesh Sharma. But Ganguly and Deep joined hands to stem the rot and put up an unbeaten stand of 68 runs.

Later talking to reporters, Ganguly said though he was disturbed by last night bomb blasts, he did not allow to come those things during playing.

The play began 45 minutes late because of extra security drill.

In fact three North Zone cricket players, including V R V Singh, had escaped unhurt after getting trapped in the Fancy bazar, the scene of crime, last night.

Score card: North Zone first innings: 504 all out East Zone (Ist Innings) Submoy Das c Gambhir B Gagandeep 1 Shib Sundar Das b Asish Nehera 4 Abhisek Jhunjuwalla C Joginder b Nehra 32 Saurav Ganguly batting 118 Laxmi Ratan Shukla st Rawat b Rajesh 15 Deep Dasgupta batting 22 Extras (B 1, NB 22) 23 Total (For four wickets in 77.5 overs) 215 Fall of wicets 1/3 2/5 3/107 4/147 Bowling: Asish Nehra 24.5-6-59-2 Gagandeep Singh 12-4-32-1 Joginder Sharma 12-3-34-0 Rajesh Sharma 23-2-66-1 V Bhatia 6-1-23-0 UNI MT PC AY BS1718