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Rinku Singh and Vidwath Kaverappa delivered standout performances as Central Zone and South Zone started their Duleep Trophy semifinals well on Sunday.
Central Zone is pitted against East Zone, while South Zone is playing against North Zone in Bengaluru in their respective semifinals. East Zone won the toss, putting CZ to bat first. Central Zone lost half their side for 125 runs, with big names like Aryan Juyal (46 in 113 balls, with six fours), skipper Rajat Patidar (12) and Yash Rathod (27) all failing to fire big. Rinku put on a 55-run sixth-wicket stand with Harsh Dubey (27 in 38 balls, with four boundaries and a six). Rinku took Central Zone past the 200-run mark, posting a counter-attacking fifty in 71 balls, with seven fours. Aryan Pandey (22 in 46 balls, with two fours) and Yash Thakur (30* in 26 balls, with six fours) put on a 45-run stand for the last wicket as Central Zone finished at 266/10 in 80.1 overs. Abhijit Sarkar (3/38) and Mukesh Kumar (3/56) were among the top bowlers, while Mohammed Shami also got 2/42 in 16 overs. Day one ended with Central Zone getting bundled out. Elsewhere, during the South Zone-North Zone clash, North Zone elected to bat first and lost Sanat Sangwan (10) early. Qamran Iqbal and Ayush Doseja (23 in 30 balls, with five fours) had a 53-run stand for the second wicket. Ayush Badoni (2) and Abdul Samad (16) fell quickly, with their team at 95/4. Iqbal and skipper Kanhaiya Wadhawan (35 in 61 balls, with three fours) put up 66 runs for the fifth wicket, taking the team into the 160s. Kaverappa cleaned up the tail as North Zone slipped from 161/4 to 195 all out in 59.1 overs. Kaverappa (4/66) was the pick of the bowlers for South Zone, MD Nidheesh and Tanay Thyagarajan also got two wickets. South Zone ended the day at 40/2, with Narayan Jagadeesan (34*) and skipper Tilak Varma (1*) unbeaten, with the team losing Ricky Bhui (5) to Anshul Kamboj and Shaikh Rasheed to Gurnoor Brar, making an eight-ball duck. (ANI)
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