East folds up without a fight

By S. Sabanayakan

GUWAHATI, JAN. 20. The holder North Zone completed the last rites of East 31 minutes after lunch on the third day of the four-day Duleep Trophy league match to emerge the most deserving victor by 237 runs at the NFRSA Stadium at Maligaon near here on Saturday. Thus North earned full eight points from this contest to log 18 points from three games.

Yet another spineless batting display marked East's second essay. The innings folded up at 156 chasing a stiff target of 393 on a wicket that played slower than the first two days. The poor showing of the East batsmen did not take away the credit the North Zone team deserved. Despite not having its skipper Vikram Rathour on the field today also, North bowlers came up with disciplined attack and purposeful line and length.

Overhauling North's target of 394 by East was never on the cards. Yet, everybody expected this East Zone side to go down fighting. Even its skipper Shiv Sundar Das, the only current India player in the team, failed to display this virtue despite beginning well and scoring 27 runs this morning.

Opener Nikhil Haldipur set the tone for the day. He did not know where his off-stump was and guided a short-pitched ball into the first slip off Aashish Nehra in the third over.

Das and Reshmi Ranjan Paridaadded 49 effortless runs in 14.4 overs before Das needlessly drove at Reetinder Singh Sodhi's ball pitching on the rough left by the bowlers foot mark.

The ball, predictably, came slowly off the pitch and the shot ended into the hands of Nehra at covers.

Parida too looked in good nick but perished after scoring 19 runs. Surinder Singh Bagal, brought on from the other end, angled a short-pitched delivery towards the slips and Parida nicked it.

Sanjay Raul came and went and Rohan Gavaskar, forced to play with an injured right index finger, ballooned a sweep shot off left- arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi to Yuveraj Singh posted at leg slip after taking East to 100 in 125 minutes off 26.1 over. Deep Dasgupta, who played with a lot of confidence, for 25 runs saw Sukhvinder Singh falling four balls later and six runs later he himself drove Nehra without getting to the pitch of the ball to offer a low catch to Sarandeep Singh at covers.

A late defiance came from the pair of Utpal Chatterjee and Mihir Diwakar as the duo put on 44 runs in 8.5 overs for the eighth wicket before Chatterjee became Nehra's third victim.

A buoyant North will play Central in its last league game while East, having five points from two games, will move over to Agartala to take on South from January 25.

The scores: North - 1st innings: 206.

East - 1st innings: 81.

North - 2nd innings: 268.

East - 2nd innings: Shiv Sundar Das c Nehra b Sodhi 27, Nikhil Haldipur c sub (Parinder Sharma) b Nehra 10, Reshmi Ranjan Parida c Sehwag b Bagal 19, Sanjay Raul c Dahiya b Sodhi 2, Rohan Gavaskar c Yuveraj b Sanghvi 6, Deep Dasgupta c Sarandeep b Nehra 25, Sukhvinder Singh c sub (Sharma) b Sanghvi 0, Utpal Chatterjee c sub (Sharma) b Nehra 25, Mihir Diwakar st Dahiya b Sanghvi 13, Debasish Mohanty c Bagal b Sanghvi 0, Javed Zaman (not out) 5, Extras (b-4, lb-5, nb-15) 24. Total (all out in 40.2 overs): 156.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-64, 3-67, 4-71, 5-100, 6-100, 7-106, 8- 150, 9-150.

North bowling: Aashish Nehra 15-2-76-3, Surinder Singh Bagal 11-2-33-1, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 7-1-21-2, Rahul Sanghvi 7.2-1-17-4.

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