da supremo： A blistering knock by Virender Shewag rescued North Zone from anembarrassing position as their battle for the first innings lead againstWest Zone spilled over into the final day at the PCA Stadium in Mohali
da bet sport： Staff reporter13-Jan-2001A blistering knock by Virender Shewag rescued North Zone from anembarrassing position as their battle for the first innings lead againstWest Zone spilled over into the final day at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. Thehosts ended the penultimate day of this Duleep Trophy clash on 217/5, still67 short of West’s 284. For once, the fog did not interfere markedly withthe proceedings, with 85.4 overs being flung down.North seamers Ashish Nehra and Surendra Singh struck thrice in quicksuccession in the morning after they resumed at 174/5. Nehra bowled skipperNayan Mongia for 10 in the day’s second over. The new ball which was takenafter 81 overs hustled out both Niraj Patel and Zaheer Khan to leave Westin a pickle at 211/8. Sairaj Bahutule led a tailend rally that fetched 73runs for the last two wickets, including a 47 run ninth wicket associationwith Iqbal Siddiqui in just 8.2 overs. Bahutule was last out, trapped legbefore by the third seamer Gagandeep Singh for 42. Both Nehra and SurendraSingh ended with four wickets apiece.Zaheer Khan made the breakthrough in the 11th over of North’s reply,trapping skipper Vikram Rathour leg before. From 63/1, North lost threewickets in less than six overs as the West seam attack mercilessly probedtheir weaknesses. After hitting three boundaries in a forty minute longvisit to the middle, Yuvraj Singh was caught behind by Mongia off Siddiqui.Last week’s double centurion Dinesh Mongia barely troubled the scorers ashe had his stumps rattled in Siddiqui’s next over and when Santosh Saxenamarched back Reetinder Sodhi into the dressing room for a five ball duck,North were 75/4.Opener Akash Chopra had survived the onslaught, but shortly after postinghis half century he became Siddiqui’s third victim, trapped leg before for54 (121 balls, 9 fours). Shewag and wicket keeper Pankaj Dharmani proceededto frustrate West with an unbroken 105 run stand in 22.4 overs. Havingstruck 110 balls and struck 15 boundaries, Shewag ended the day twelve runsshort of his second successive ton in the competition, while Dharmani hadnotched up 28. The three West speedsters had bowled 54 of the 60 overs withSiddiqui returning figures of 3/79.
