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Chawla saves the day for Central
No matter how talented you are, cricket is a mind game and one has to deliver on the field.
No matter how talented you are, cricket is a mind game and one has to deliver on the field.
Central Zone came to bat for the second time with a 38-run lead and an open game in front of them on Thursday in the Duleep Trophy semifinal here. Soon they were reduced to 39 for 3 and it appeared they had not learnt from their first innings experience of facing the South Zone attack.
But, once again, it was Piyush Chawla who came to their rescue and played an intelligent 56-run innings to help Central Zone score 252.
He scored his second half-century of this match with the help of eight boundaries and a six.
Only a spinner knows how to play a fellow spinner and only a tweaker knows how to dismiss his counterpart. Chawla fell prey to R. Ashwin’s fast delivery that kept a little low. Chawla was supported by Praveen Kumar who did some pinch-hitting — 40 off 39 balls, including four boundaries and two sixes — from the other end.
Barring Suresh Raina (59 off 82 balls), no other batsman could stay at the crease.
Openers Jalaj Saxena and one-down batsman Sanjay Bangar failed to deliver yet again.
If Central Zone manage to progress from here, they will have to work on these areas.
For South Zone, R. Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of six for 67. C. Ganapathy too troubled the batsmen with his disciplined line and length.
With the South Zone scorecard reading 57 for one at stumps, the match is evenly poised for the final day.
Reward for South
Five South Zone players have been picked in the Board President’s XI squad that will take on South Africa ahead of the first Test in Nagpur. Abhinav Mukund, Manish Pandey, Abhimanyu Mithun, R. Vinay Kumar and R Ashwin have been picked while Piyush Chawla is the only one from Central Zone who figures in the list.
With so many South Zone players and four from West Zone — Rohit Sharma, Ajinkiya Rahane, Parthiv Patel and Cheteshwar Pujara — the Duleep Trophy final, scheduled in Hyderabad from Feb. 2, might get postponed.
