Rohan Gavaskar keeps East in the hunt

By Ritesh Gupta

KANPUR, JAN. 13. Just when East Zone seemed in deep trouble, Rohan Gavaskar salvaged the situation with an unbeaten 51 and kept alive its hopes of gaining the first innings lead against Central Zone.

Even as Central continued to defend a challenging 421 with a disciplined effort on the field, the stocky left-hander displayed plenty of application which his fellow teammates failed to exhibit on the penultimate day of the Duleep Trophy league match at the Green Park Stadium here on Saturday.

East, placed at 230 for four, now looks forward to Gavaskar and Rajiv Kumar (batting 20) to press its claims for five points on the final day on Sunday.

After 105 minutes play was lost in the morning, the sun broke through to provide East with better conditions to chase a big score.

In the morning, Javed Zaman finished with a five- wicket haul after Central resumed at 417 for eight and was bowled out for the addition of just four runs.

In East's innings, Shiv Sundar Das, Nikhil Haldipur and half- centurion R.R. Parida blew away sound starts before Gavaskar took over the reins. Facing mainly left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and off-spinner Kulamani Parida, Gavaskar was decisive in his footwork, which enabled him clear the fence twice apart from four boundaries. After sharing a 61-run stand with Parida, Gavaskar found an able ally in Rajiv Kumar, who looked good in the final session.

Unlike, Gavaskar who has batted almost for two hours, others failed to stay long enough. Das started strongly when he cracked some delightful boundaries off new-ball bowler Ashish Winston Zaidi to begin in style. Das timed his shots well and found the gaps with ease while playing elegant square drives. With Nikhil Haldipur (34) also showing signs of comfort, East was off to a decent start, managing as many as 68 in the first hour after lunch.

But both the openers fell in quick succession to J.P. Yadav. With an in-cutter, which also skidded along, the Bhopal bowler trapped the rival captain in front of the wicket. Das scored 40, which included eight 4s. Later, Yadav had Haldipur caught by the wicketkeeper.

Parida, who scored a patient 53, looked capable of a big innings before he was adjudged leg-before to Kartik in the final session. After performing with aplomb, the Orissa batsman decided not to offer any stroke and became Kartik's first victim.

The scores:

Central Zone - 1st innings: J.P. Yadav b Zaman 95, Amit Pagnis c Nikhil Haldipur b Diwakar 7, Amay Khurasiya c R.R. Parida b Zaman 110, Mohammad Kaif c Deep Das Gupta b Zaman 83, Gagan Khoda lbw b Zaman 6, Raja Ali c and b Sukhwinder Singh 16, Abhay Sharma c Utpal Chatterjee b Sukhwinder Singh 31, Murali Kartik lbw b Sukhwinder Singh 45, Kulamani Parida c Raul b Diwakar 9, Ashish W. Zaidi b Zaman 7, Shalabh Srivastava (not out) 0. Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-1) 12. Total: 421.

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-212, 3-221, 4- 249, 5-280, 6-351, 7-375, 8-409, 9-421.

East bowling: Javed Zaman 34-5-99-5, Mihir Diwakar 25.2-7-95-2, Utpal Chatterjee 20-6-75-0, Sukhwinder Singh 25-5-89-3, Sanjay Raul 14-0-52-0.

East Zone - 1st innings: S.S. Das lbw b J.P. Yadav 40, Nikhil Haldipur c Abhay Sharma b J.P. Yadav 34, R.R. Parida lbw b Kartik 53, Sanjay Raul b K. Parida 11, Rohan Gavaskar (batting) 51, Rajiv Kumar (batting) 20. Extras (b-6, lb- 2, nb-13) 21. Total (for four wickets) 230.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-96, 3-120, 4- 181.

Central bowling: Zaidi 8-1-34-0, Srivastava 6-2-16-0, Kartik 22.3-2-69-1, J.P. Yadav 8-2-41-2, K. Parida 21-6-62-1.

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