Opting to bowl, the West Zone bowlers maintained their benefit all through the day on a principally overcast day that was finally referred to as off resulting from poor gentle.
Captain Hanuma Vihari put up a lone battle for the South Zone crew, scoring 63 runs off 130 balls. Nevertheless, the difficult circumstances made it clear that particular person heroics wouldn’t be sufficient to show the tide in South’s favor.
The West Zone pacers, together with Arzan Nagwaswalla, Chintan Gaja, and Atit Sheth, must be counseled for his or her disciplined bowling, which restricted the South Zone batting line-up. They successfully moved the ball, conserving the South openers, Mayank Agarwal and R Samarth, cautious.
The primary wicket fell rapidly, as Samarth selected to chop a brief and broad supply from Gaja and was caught behind the stumps by Harvik Desai.
Mayank and Tilak Varma then tried to construct a partnership for the South Zone. Within the course of, Mayank reached the milestone of finishing 7000 runs in First-Class cricket from 159 innings, beginning the match at 6976 runs.
Nevertheless, Mayank could not capitalise on his begin. His makes an attempt to counter the motion by strolling down the pitch proved ineffective and ultimately led to his dismissal.
It transpired this quickly. The Karnataka right-hander’s expansive drive off Sheth had deadly penalties, ending in a catch to Sarfaraz Khan at third slip.
At 42 for two, South had been in some hazard however the perfect passage of their innings adopted. Tilak and Hanuma Vihari milked 79 runs for the third wicket as South inched in the direction of a safer zone. South went to lunch at 100 for 2.
Vihari was significantly spectacular, neutralising the pacers in a manual-perfect approach. The Hyderabad right-hander performed the quicks nearer to his physique, muffling the bounce and motion. It helped him resist the West bowlers for over three hours on the day.
Vihari introduced out his wristy flicks each time the pacers drifted on to his pads, including that contact of magnificence to his in any other case doughty innings.
The additional second he had in his hand to play the ball was fairly evident and his technique was fairly totally different from different South high order batters who went searching for the ball.
Sadly, enjoying late led to his doom as effectively. Vihari tried to late reduce left-arm spinner Shams Mulani however the ball snaked onto the stumps after taking the sting of his bat.
Tilak perished to Nagwaswalla because the West Zone ate into the meat of South batting order rapidly within the publish lunch session.
West snaffled 4 wickets on this interval for 66 runs to depart their opponents in a spot of hassle.
(With PTI inputs)
