Young guns Manish Pandey and debutant B. Aparajith called the shots on the opening day to take South Zone to a position of strength against West Zone in their Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Thursday.
Young guns Manish Pandey and debutant B. Aparajith called the shots on the opening day to take South Zone to a position of strength against West Zone in their Duleep Trophy quarter-final here on Thursday. An unbeaten 161-run stand for the fourth wicket between Aparajith (93, 131b, 11x4s 1x5) and Pandey (81, 118balls, 7x4s, 1x6s) took South Zone to 213/3 in 54 overs when bad light forced close of play. Driving inside out from the rough outside the leg stump and drilling through the covers off left-arm spinners Rakesh Dhruv and Akshay Darekar, Aparajith reminded one of V.V.S. Laxman. If Aparajith’s feet movement showcased his talent, rocking on to the back foot to play some audacious pulls against the turn showed the confidence of Pandey who had walked in at 52/3. The ploy of having a five-four off-side field from skipper Wasim Jaffer went haywire once the duo began to play freely. Soon, the in and out field strategy was brought out by Jaffer. At tea, South had wrestled back the initiative to reach 128/3 with Aparajith at 51 and Pandey close to a half-century. As soon as Pandey pulled one to reach his fifty and then bullied one over the mid-on fielder for a four off Jaydev Unadkat, Jaffer had no option but to use negative tactics which eventually failed as the South duo collected 83 runs after tea in 19 overs. If at all there was a blemish that one could find in the pair, it was their frenetic running between the wickets. Aparajith survived three run out chances. Earlier, a damp patch in the run-up area owing to overnight rain delayed the start of play by a session. After an early lunch, South opted to bat. On a track that had little bounce and pace off the pitch, new-ball bowlers Unadkat and Murtuja Vahora broke the top-order of South. Opener Abhinav Mukund (4) was castled by a ball that kept low from Vahora. Five balls later, Unadkat’s decision to come around the wicket to an in-form Akshath Reddy (18) proved fruitful. South were reduced to 22/2 in 8.3 overs. Soon K.L. Rahul (6) slogged one from Yusuf Pathan and was given leg before wicket.
Scorecard
South Zone (1st innings): A. Reddy lbw b Unadkat 18, A. Mukund b Vahora 4, K.L. Rahul lbw b Yusuf 6, B. Aparajith (batting) 93, M. Pandey (batting) 81. Extras: 11 (b8, lb1, w2). Total (for 3 wkts, in 54 overs) 213. FoW: 1-20, 2-22, 3-52 Bowling: Unadkat 10-2-39-1, Vahora 9-2-20-1, Yusuf 12-2-36-1, Dhruv 11-1-54-0 (2w), Darekar 11-2-50-0, Bawne 1-0-5-0
