Binny strikes leave East on the mat

East Zone hurtled towards defeat as their entire batting crumbled in the first innings, before the top order folded early in the second as they lost 14 wickets on the day in Lahli. Stuart Binny was the most successful of South Zone's bowlers as he made the most of helpful conditions that made batting exceedingly difficult.

It was Binny's burst that broke East's first innings after they had crawled to 25 for 1 in the 16th over. He snatched three wickets in two overs, between which his Karnataka team-mate HS Sharath grabbed the big wicket of East captain, Manoj Tiwary. When Binny had the set batsman, Natraj Behera, bowled in the 24th over, East had slipped to 34 for 6. Pragyan Ojha mopped up the tail as East subsided to 84 all out, with no batsman making it even as far as 20.

Though South lost one of their senior bowlers, Vinay Kumar, to a hamstring injury, they decided to enforce the follow-on. Binny ran amok again as he tore through the East top order, getting the ball to curve around significantly. He dismissed the top three within the eighth over, after which Sharath had the wicket of Manoj Tiwary for the second time in the day.

From 18 for 4, East managed to avoid further damage in the six overs to stumps, but South remain poised for a big victory.