Paras Dogra, Gaurav Gupta help North Zone pile up runs

North Zone batsmen started their Vijay Hazare Trophy final against holders East Zone in style by piling up 398 for seven by the end of the first day at the RSI grounds in Bangalore on Thursday. Centuries by Paras Dogra (110) and Gaurav Gupta (105*) were the highlights of the day.

Put in to bat, North Zone were given a good start with openers Vishwas Bhalla (14) and Rahul Arora (39) putting on 36 runs off 8.5 overs. Bhalla was the first to be dismissed caught by SP Priyadarshan off S Sarkar. His partner Arora soon joined him in the pavilion as he offered a return catch to Avik Choudury in the 14th over. In the very next over Sarkar sent back Himanshu Mehta (2).

This brought Paras Dogra and Deepak Soni (25) together and they steadied the ship with a 107-run fourth wicket stand in 29 overs. Dogra was the chief contributor in the partnership. Scoring his runs at will, Dogra reached his fifty needing just 41 balls. The partnership was broken when Soni was bowled by SK Ray. Then Gaurav Gupta joined Dogra and forged a 77-run fifth wicket partnership. During the course of the stand, Dogra reached his century, needing 114 balls in all. Dogra got bogged down a little and by the time he was dismissed in the 61st over, he faced 177 balls and hit 16 boundaries.

The fall of Dogra brought Abhinav Bali (55) to the crease. Along with Gupta, he further tormented the East attack for a 102-run sixth wicket stand. Gupta then lost one more partner that of Bhupinder Singh (8) even as the score proceeded beyond 350. At the end of the day, Gupta remained unbeaten ably supported by Abhishek Sharma (8). Arshad Iqbal was the most successful bowler for East with figures of three for 84.