Anoop Pai, Srinivas Rao prop up South Zone

A fourth wicket stand of 130 runs between I Srinivas Rao (89) and skipper Anoop Pai (80) helped South Zone end the first day at 255 for seven in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (under-16) quarterfinal match against Central Zone at the Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodayar Sports Centre in Bangalore on Wednesday.

South Zone started off on the wrong foot after they opted to bat. Opener Dinesh Kartik (7) was caught behind by Ali Akbar off Devendra Singh off the first ball of the fifth over. His partner Prasanth Peter (7) hung around till the 12th over when he was bowled by Vivek Yadav. This brought Srinivas Rao and Anoop Pai together. They took their time to settle down and then set about rebuilding the innings. Before long both notched up half centuries, with Srinivas getting to the mark first.

The partnership was broken when Srinivas was dismissed caught by Tahir Abbas off Shivakanth Shukla in the 54th over. During a 203-minute stay in the middle, Srinivas faced 147 balls and hit 15 boundaries. Then with the score on 195, new batsman Srivasudeva Das also departed caught by Shukla off Rahat Ali. Anoop was finally out in the 78th over of the day when he was caught by Tahir off Praveen Gupta. Anoop had batted a shade over four hours, during which he faced 209 balls and found the boundary ropes eleven times.

Central Zone claimed the new ball after 83 overs and in the last stages of the day's play Abhinav was trapped leg before by Devendra Singh. Two overs before the scheduled close of play, new batsman Manjunath also departed in a similar manner, the bowler this time being Vivek Yadav. I Varun (17) and S Yadav (9) were at the crease at stumps. The wickets were shared all around with new ball bowlers Devendra Singh (2 for 55) and Vivek Yadav (2 for 30) being the pick.