Ashish Nehra demolishes North

A career-best seven for 14 runs by Ashish Nehra helped North Zone demolish East Zone for a paltry 81 runs in the first innings on the second day of the Duleep trophy match at the Maligaon railway stadium in Guwahati on Friday.

The northerners then scored quickly in their second innings to set East a challenging target of 394 to win.

Resuming at their overnight score of 26 for two, East Zone were bundled out 34 minutes before lunch for a paltry 81, with only two players reaching double figures.

Rashmi Ranjan Parida scored 28, with a help of five fours, while Deep Dasgupta made a humble 16.

East's disappointment started with its key batsman Rohan Gavaskar getting out, after being caught by Yuvraj Singh off the bowling of Nehra, for a duck.

The highlight of the day's play was the devastating spell by Nehra, who bowled 14 overs, seven of which were maidens, and took seven wickets for only 14 runs.

North, with a lead of 125 runs, began their second innings disastrously, when opener Akash Chopra got out to the first ball of the innings.

Yuvraj Singh and Vikram Rathore stabilised the innings to some extent before Rathore was caught by Dasgupta off the bowling of Mihir Diwakar.

Singh made an impressive 77, while Vijay Dahiya made a whirlwind 70 as the North concluded their second innings with 268 runs on the board.

Mail Cricket Editor