Central Zone struggling against South

Central Zone were struggling at 169 for 6 against South Zone at the end of the second day in the CK Nayudu Trophy (under-19) final at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Monday. South Zone who were comfortably placed at 303 for 6 on the first day were restricted to a first innings total of 377.

Central were off to a bad start losing opener Anshu Kapoor (12) in the fourth over of the innings. Kapoor was caught by ASK Varma off the Tamil Nadu seamer L Balaji. Amit Deshpande soon joined his partner in the pavilion. Off the last ball of the fifth over bowled by Kerala paceman Steve Lazarus, Deshpande was bowled leaving Central Zone in a spot of bother at 26 for 2. But Sachin Dholpure (31) and Raza Ali (44) came together to take the score to 75. Sachin was the next to be dismissed when he lost his defences to G Shankar Rao.

Raza Ali and Afroj Khan (35) forged a 51-run stand for the fourth wicket before Raza Ali was run out. And at the fag end of the day Central Zone lost two quick wickets which brought the pressure back on them. Mohd Faiq first had Manoj Srivastava bowled for 14. Then Balaji came back to pick up the wicket of Afroj Khan by shattering his stumps. Surender Singh (4) and Chandrashekar Atram (0) were manning the crease at stumps.

Earlier, the South Zone overnight batsmen Mohd Faiq (9) and Vijay Sai Suri (29) were separated in the fourth over of the day. Sai Suri was the first to be dismissed when he was bowled by Sunil Upadhay. Then Shankar Rao (23) joined Faiq to take the score to 335. Faiq was then run out. Lazarus, who replaced him, lasted exactly five balls and was then bowled by Atram for a duck. However, the last wicket pair of Shankar Rao and L Balaji (24 not out) added 41 useful runs before Shankar Rao was bowled by Raza Ali. Sunil Upadhay (4 for 89) was the most successful bowler for Central Zone.