East Zone in firm control against Central at Kolkata

Poor application on the part of Central Zone batsmen saw East Zone take firm control of their Duleep Trophy match at Kolkata on Thursday.

East reached 365 in their first innings after starting the second day on 261 for four. Deep Dasgupta, East's centurion, could only add three runs to his total, falling for 112 off 290 balls, with 13 fours, as the first wicket of the day.

Pravanjan Mullick, who had retired hurt the previous day, came out again to make 34 off 56 balls, with five fours. His was the sixth wicket to fall. Laxmi Rattan Shukla, the overnight batsman, made 40 off 98 balls, with six fours, before he fell.

The tail could not add much to the total, although Utpal Chatterjee showed some resistance to make 22 off 32 before getting out. East ended their innings in 121 overs and 499 minutes. For Central, Kulamani Parida took four wickets for 41 runs.

Central Zone opener Jyoti Yadav top-scored for his side with 48 off 96 balls. None of the other batsmen who were dismissed could even cross the 20-run mark. Yadav shared a good partnership of 71 runs for the third wicket with Yere Goud, but after Yadav got out, wickets tumbled in a hurry.

At the close of play, Central Zone were 136 for five off 57 overs. Goud was unbeaten on 34 off 156 balls, desperately looking for partners to stay with him at the crease. Raja Ali was unbeaten on 5 off 58 balls at stumps.