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Fine knocks by Rathore, Sodhi

North Zone wrested the early advantage against Central Zone, piling 302 for five in their Duleep Trophy semi-final at the Maligaon Railway stadium in Guwahati today.

At stumps, Rajiv Nayar was batting on 13 and Dinesh Mongia on two.

Central Zone gallantly fought back in the last session of the day to pick three quick wickets and halt the free flow of runs.

North elected to bat on the placid Maligaon track, which, however, showed signs of turn by the end of the day as Test discard Narendra Hirwani exploited the rough outside the leg stump while bowling constantly from the railway end to bag three wickets.

North began on a solid note with both the openers scoring half centuries. Their partnership yielded 97 before they were separated by B S Bangar.

Bangar trapped Ashu Dani with a beauty. But captain Vikram Rathore, fresh from his 70 against South Zone at Agartala, played another chanceless innings today. He treated all the Central bowlers with disdain in his 179-minute stay at the crease, which fetched him 70 runs with the help of eight boundaries.

Rathore lost his wicket when he tried to loft the ball over mid-off. He mistimed a flighted one from Hirwani and was smartly caught by Jyoti Yadav. But by then he and promising Punjab youngster R S Sodhi added another 73 invaluable runs for the second wicket.

Sodhi impressed the two national selectors - Ashok Malhotra and T S Sekhar - present on the ground as he played a beautiful innings and scored a swashbuckling 88. He was on course for a deserving century but was caught behind. The bouncing ball kissed his gloves while he attempted a sweep shot and Mudgal picked his second catch of the day.

Sodhi was, however, dissatisfied with the decision which the umpire had to reconfirm.

He and the Pankaj Dharmani added 90 runs for the third wicket. After tea, seeing North scoring at will and threatening to go past 350 by the end of the day, Central captain Gyanendra Pandey used negative tactics and asked Hirwani to bowl constantly wide of leg stumps. This frustrated the North batsmen.

Dharmani was victim of this tactic to give Hirwani his third wicket of the day. He mistimed a shot and at mid-off Pritam Gandhe took an easy catch.

One more wicket fell at the end of the day, when in-form Virendra Shewag was bowled by Pritam Gandhe when cutting loose. He had scored 274 against South at Agartala. However, Rajiv Nayar and D S Mongia managed to stay unbeaten.

Scoreboard

North Zone (1st innings):
Ashu Dani c M Mudgal b S Bangar 53
V Rathore c Jyoti Yadav b N Nirwani 70
R S Sodhi c M Mudgal b N Hirwani 88
P Dharmani c P Gandhe b N Hirwani 52
R Nayar not out 13
V Shewag b P Gandhe 10
D S Mongia not out 2
Extras (nb-13): 13
Total: (for five wickets) 302
Fall of wickets: 1-97, 2-170, 3-260, 6-282, 5-298
Bowling: A Zaidi 15- 0- 68- 0, S Banger 20-3-74-1, P Gandhe 13-1-55-1, N Hirwani 25-2-72-3, G Pandey 17-4-33-0

UNI