Hyderabad: Brilliant hundreds by Yuvraj Singh and captain Shikhar Dhawan took North Zone to a commanding position at the end of the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. North Zone finished the day with their score at 346/4.
The star of the day was comeback man Yuvraj Singh, who was playing his first four-day match after successfully defeating a rare germ cell cancer. Yuvraj looked focused and scored at a fluent pace. He played orthodox shots and was unbeaten on 133 at the end of the day.
Earlier in the day, captain Dhawan won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked a pretty flat wicket. Dhawan lost his opening partner Rahul Dewan (17) quite early in the innings but had a good partnership with Nitin Saini (35) for the third wicket. After the fall of Saini’s wicket, Yuvraj came into bat and started middling the ball straightaway.
Both Yuvraj and Dhawan punished the Central Zone bowlers for every lose delivery that they bowled. Together, Dhawan (121) and Yuvraj put up a partnership of 160 runs before Dhawan gave a return catch to Murali Kartik. Number five batsman Mandeep Singh couldn’t do much and got out at an individual score of four.
Yuvraj and Paras Dodra (30*) were involved in an unbeaten stand of 71 runs before the day ended.
Brief Score:
North Zone: 346/4 (Yuvraj 133*, Dhawan 121, Praveen Kumar 2-72)
By Indian Sports News Network