Batsmen rule the roost in Central Zone

In the recent round of Central Zone league matches in the Cooch Behar Trophy Tournament both the matches produced a tame draw. In the match played at the Kamla Club, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan played out a high scoring draw. Rajasthan won the toss and elected to bat first. Almost all batsmen got into the act AV Maan 59,DA Singh 58, captain Afroz Khan 66 collecting half centuries.But it was AR Chauhan scoring an unbeaten 110 of 251 balls including 14 boundaries who stole the show as Rajasthan closed their innings at 386/4 declared. Uttar Pradesh started the run chase for the first innings points but could only muster 341/9 by the end of the match. R Prasad 78, S Dixit 51, S Bhalla 55 amongst the runs. For Rajasthan Shamsher Singh picked up 3/84. Rajasthan Picked up Five points by the virtue of their first innings lead, Uttar Pradesh got themselves three.

In the other match played at Maharani Usha Raje Cricket Ground Railways won the crucial toss and elected to bat against Madhya Pradesh. Manoj Srivastava (63),Surinder Singh (46), S Yadav (48) and A Shahid (51 not out) piled up a formidable total. Railways scored 347 all out in 141.4 overs. Jitendra Likhar (4/67) was the pick of the bowlers. In reply to the Railways total MP batsmen faced a tight spell from Surinder Singh (5/78) and Raza Ali (3/65) restricted them from playing their strokes.MP hung around for 96.3 overs but managed 227 all out. Jitendra Likhar chipped in with a valuable (42). Railways took a lead of 120 runs. In the second innings they batted out the 24 overs losing 4 wickets for 59 runs. Railways and MP picked up 5 points and three points respectively. both teams have a total of 18 points from their matches so far.