Duleep Trophy: East Zone wraps up Central Zone for 182 runs, Dhruv Shorey's century strengthens North Zone

Aligarh's Rinku Singh, who impressed one and all with his performances in the IPL, could not do much against East Zone in the quarterfinals of the Duleep Trophy. East Zone bundled out Central Zone for just 182 runs on the first day. Rinku scored a maximum of 38 runs for his team. Tripura bowler Moorasingh took five wickets for 42 runs. In response, at the end of the game, Avesh Khan took two wickets to reduce the East Zone score to 32 for two.

Rinku-Upendra shared a 61-run partnership
Central Zone captain Shivam Mavi won the toss and decided to bat first. Vivek Singh (21) and Himanshu Mantri (29) tried to provide a decent start, both adding 39 runs in 102 balls. After this wickets started falling continuously. After 86 for four, Rinku and wicket-keeper Upendra Yadav (25) shared a 61-run partnership, but the middle-field innings collapsed for 182 after Rinku, who scored 38 off 58 balls with six fours, was dismissed. Apart from Moorasingh's five wickets, Shahbaz Ahmed took two wickets for 42 runs.

Avesh sent the former opening pair to the pavilion
In response, the start of the East Zone was also not good. Shantanu Mishra (6) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (0) were dismissed lbw by Avesh Khan to reduce the former's score to two for 19 runs. At the end of the game, Sudeep Bharmani was playing on 19 and Shahbaz Ahmed on 6 runs. Avesh took two wickets for 13 runs.

North Zone scored 306 runs for six wickets
North Zone scored 306 for six at the end of the first day's play thanks to a century from Dhruv Shorey against North-East Zone in another quarter-final. All-rounder Nishant Sindhu is playing on 76 and Pulkit Narang on 23. Dhruv played an inning of 135 runs in 211 balls with the help of 22 fours.

North-East captain Rongsen Jonathan won the toss and elected to bowl, but Dhruv and Prashant Gupta (32) put on 80 runs for the first wicket. Prabhsimran Singh got out for 31 runs. Dhruv and Nishant shared an 80-run partnership for the fifth wicket. After the dismissal of Dhruv and captain Jayant Yadav (0), Nishant and Pulkit shared an unbroken 64-run partnership for the seventh wicket. P Jotin and Kishan Singh took two wickets each.

(pc amarujala)