East and Central Zones locked in battle of wits

It has been cat and mouse between East and Central Zone over the vital first innings lead at Green Park, Kanpur in their Duleep Trophy match. Fluctuating fortunes all through the day saw the third day's play end on Saturday with East on 230/4 trailing Central by 191 runs. Rohan Gavaskar with an unbeaten 51 is leading the East charge with Rajiv Kumar on 20.

The morning did not start too well for Central who started on 417/8 and were bowled out for 421 in the third over of the day. Right arm medium pacer Javed Zaman finished with 5/99 to take the bowling honours.

East Zone got off to a flying start thanks to India opening batsman Shiv Sunder Das and Nikhil Haldipur. The pair added 68 runs in 12.4 overs. Das was first to depart, trapped in front of the wicket by JP Yadav. His quickfire innings of 40 in 50 balls included 8 boundaries. Left hander Haldipur also fell to Yadav at 96 after making 34 runs.

SS Raul was bowled by Kulamani Parida for just 11 and East were reduced to 120/3 in the 28th over. Rashmi Parida and Rohan Gavaskar steadied the innings for a while with a partnership of 61 for the fourth wicket. Parida was trapped LBW by Murali Kartik as soon as he got to his half century. He made 53 runs off 110 balls hitting a six and six boundaries.

East were precariously placed at 181/4, but Gavaskar and Rajiv Kumar played sensibly for 19.3 overs adding 49 runs for the unbeaten fifth wicket when play was called off for the day. Gavaskar carried on with his impressive form, knocking the ball for two sixes and four boundaries so far in his unbeaten innings.