Powar hits unbeaten ton as West Zone make a pile

West Zone piled on the runs on the second day of their Duleep Trophy match against East Zone at the Nehru stadium in Pune on Friday. If yesterday, it was Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli who held centre stage, today it was the turn of Ramesh Powar to steal the show. He scored 113 as West Zone raced to 656 for seven declared in their first innings. In reply, East Zone were 50 for no loss off 14 overs.

Resuming at 384 for four, West Zone lost Kambli early. The former Indian left hander was bowled by Javed Zaman for 117. Sairaj Bahutule joined Jacob Martin and the two pushed the score along past the 450 mark. Martin was rather laborious taking 150 minutes to compile 39 runs. He faced 121 balls and hit six fours before being run out by East Zone skipper Shiv Sundar Das.

The East Zone bowling came in for punishment when Bahutule and Powar shared a 109-run seventh wicket partnership off 36.5 overs. Bahutule was then run out by Rohan Gavaskar for 62. The Mumbai leg spinner faced 129 balls and hit eight fours and a six.

Powar who settled down quickly now went for the bowling. He and Indian all rounder Ajit Agarkar did pretty much what they liked with the tired and dispirited attack in adding 94 runs for the unbroken eighth wicket off just 21 overs. Powar, who came in at No 8, batted three hours, faced 140 balls and hit 15 fours and two sixes. Agarkar remained unbeaten on 32 off 64 balls with four boundary hits and a six.

East Zone's opening pair of SS Das and Zakaria Zuffri batted confidently and were batting on 22 and 23 runs respectively when stumps were drawn.