Duleep Trophy: West Zone lead Central after Shaw's sparkling hundred

Ricky Bhui made an unbeaten 103 while Baba Indrajith hit a half-century as South Zone posted a massive first innings total of 630/8 before declaring on the second day of their Duleep Trophy semifinal against North Zone here on Friday.

In reply, North reached 24 for no loss at stumps with Yash Dhull on 8 (18 balls, 1 four) and Manan Vohra batting on 11 (12 balls, 1 fours), still 606 runs adrift of South's huge first innings score.

Resuming at overnight 324/2, the South batters continued to pile on the runs. Captain Hanuma Vihari, who was batting on 107 overnight, extended his partnership with Indrajith (65, 104 balls, 4 fours) to 105 runs before being trapped LBW by left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar (3 for 184).

Indrajith and Manish Pandey (35) added 57 runs for the fourth wicket before the former became Dagar's second scalp.

Pandey fell to Dagar at 440 but North's ordeal was not over as Bhui went on the attack, and with support from K Gowtham (48, 72 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes) and T Ravi Teja (42, 66 balls, 4 fours, 1 six), swelled the South Zone total.

From 440/5, Bhui and the others added 190 runs before skipper Vihari declared the innings. On day one, opener Rohan S Kunnummal smashed a ton on Duleep Trophy debut to put South Zone in control.

Brief scores: South Zone 630/8 declared in 172.overs (Rohan Kunnumal 143, Hanuma Vihari 134, Ricky Bhui 103 not out, B Indrajith 65, Mayank Agarwal 49, K Gowtham 48, Mayank Dagar 3 for 184) vs North Zone 24/0 in 5 overs.

West hits back to bundle out Central for 128

In Coimbatore, Prithvi Shaw was in roaring form as he hammered an unbeaten 96-ball 104 (11 fours, 3 sixes) as West Zone ended at 130/3 in the second innings to extend their lead against Central Zone to 259 runs.

West Zone bowlers came to the fore and dismissed Central Zone for 128 in the first innings, a lead of 129 runs after being restricted to 257.

Shaw then made sure that West took control of proceedings with a blistering knock. After a ton in the quarterfinal against North East Zone, Shaw demonstrated his batting skills by tearing into the Central zone attack.

Even as Shaw went about smashing the bowlers around the park, West lost three wickets, including that of Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Ajinkya Rahane.

Before that experienced pacer Jaydev Unadkat (3-24) did the early damage while spinner Tanush Kotian picked up three wickets, including that of Karan Sharma, to stifle the Central line-up.

Resuming the second day at overnight 252 for nine, West were able to add only five more runs to the score.

Rahul Tripathi fell to pacer Aniket Choudhary (2 for 48) for 67 to signal the end of the West innings. Left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya Singh was the most successful bowler, finishing with 5-66.

Apart from Tripathi's half-century, opener Prithvi Shaw made 60 (78 balls, 10 fours) and Shams Mulani (41). Central Zone innings was rocked early when Unadkat got Yash Dubey LBW for 4. After a partnership of 28 runs, Himanshu Mantri fell on 11 runs to Unadkat.

Chintan Gaja (1 for 25) and Atit Sheth (2 for 27) also picked up wickets at regular intervals as Central slipped to 94 for seven. Venkatesh Iyer, who has featured for India in the ODIs and T20s, hit two fours and a six in his brief stay before falling to Kotian for 14.

Karan Sharma (34, 64 balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) was the last man to fall, caught by Tripathi off Kotian.

Brief scores: West Zone 259 all out in 85.4 overs (Rahul Tripathi 67, Prithvi Shaw 60, Shams Mulani 41, Kumar Kartikeya Singh 5 for 66) and 430 for 3 in 29 overs (Prithvi Shaw 104 batting) vs Central Zone 128 all out in 40.1 overs (Karan Sharma 34, Tanush Kotian 3 for 17, Jaydev Unadkat 3 for 24) (Toss: Central).