Central Zone make quick inroads

After losing five sessions to the weather, the Duleep Trophy final in Chennai got underway and Central Zone did not waste much time in grabbing the initiative. In the 31.2 overs possible on the second day, before bad light stopped play, they took three East Zone wickets to reduce them to 64 for 3.

Central chose to bowl and while Praveen Kumar kept things tight at his end, the East openers, Dheeraj Jadhav and Natraj Behera, were able to score runs at a good pace from the other end. They looked to have settled in at 44 for no loss in the 17th, before Jalaj Saxena struck with his offspin. Saxena had Jadhav lbw with one that straightened after pitching, before Behera threw away his start by hitting a full toss off Saxena to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at mid-on. That was not the only wicket gifted away; Anustup Majumdar could hit a half-tracker from Bhuvneshwar only as far as Saxena at square leg, soon after which the umpires called bad light. Stumps were called not long after, with 6.4 of the scheduled 38 overs for the day left unbowled. Praveen finished the day with figures of 7-4-4-0.

Some of the Central players sported black armbands, to mark the death of former Madhya Pradesh and Railways batsman Raja Ali, who suffered cardiac arrest on Sunday.