Ganegama strikes rock South Zone
Gangema starred for Sri Lanka A against South Zone while gautam Gambhir put in a respectable performance for North Zone against East Zone in the Duleep Trophy
Cricinfo staff
04-Nov-2006
Day 1 Sri Lanka A 36 for 1 (Udawatte 22*) trail South Zone 266 (AS Yadav 133*, Badrinath 48, Ganegama 4-71) by 230 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Arjun Yadav, with 133, managed to rescue South Zone from a total collapse after Akalanka Ganegama's ran through the South Zone top order, heavy with national team players. Ganegama's four wickets as South Zone crumbled for 266 included those of VVS Laxman, Venugopala Rao and Robin Uthappa - all three out with only one run added to the score.
South Zone were in deep trouble when Yadav arrived at the crease at 14 for five. He and Badrinath added 80 before Upul Chandana, with his slow-left arm bowling, claimed Badrinath's wicket who just missed out on a half-century. Yadav then coaxed the tail-enders to stay long enough to add 186 runs - his innings included 13 fours and four sixes.
Sri Lanka A began their innings no doubt a little disappointed to have allowed South Zone to get to 266 after such a great bowling effort from Gangema. They lost Michael Vandort early and closed the day at 36 for one.
Gautam Gambhir's cautious 86 gave North Zone a fairly good start to their Duleep Trophy match against East Zone as they managed to end the day having scored over 250 for the loss of four wickets before bad light stopped play. Saurashish Lahiri starred for East Zone claiming three wickets including Gambhir's.
Debasis Mohanty, struck first trapping Aakash Chopra, the North Zone captain, leg before. He remained miserly through the day conceding only 23 runs in his 13 overs. The lunch session saw 106 runs added to the total as Ravneet Singh Ricky and Mithun Manhas partnered with Gambhir, contributing 50 between them before Lahiri accounted for their wickets. Yashpal Singh then joined Gambhir and pushed the score over 200 before Lahiri had Gambhir caught behind by Deep Dasgupta. While Gambhir took 150 balls to reach his fifty Yashpal reached the same in 91 balls. Yashpal was batting at 65 along with wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat when stumps were called.