Chennai, Oct 24: A stubborn opening partnership put Central Zone in a firm position against defending champions East Zone at the end of the fourth day’s play in the final of the Airtel Duleep Trophy. Central Zone finished Day 4 at 74 for two – 158 behind East Zone’s 232 – when stumps were drawn at the end of the day’s play.

Earlier, the start of play was delayed because of overnight rains, which left the outfield damp. After lots of efforts put in by the Chepauk ground staff, umpires Vineet Kulkarni and Shamshuddin – who conducted several inspections – decided the outfield was in good shape for the match to begin at 14:30 hrs.

The Central Zone openers Tanmay Srivastava and Vineet Saxena played well within themselves and didn’t try anything flashy during their 68-run partnership. While Saxena was circumspect, his left-handed partner cashed in on any width offered and deliveries that landed on his pads. Though he escaped a close shave in the first over – when an Ashok Dinda delivery took the inside edge and raced to the boundary – Srivastava played fluent shots both sides of the wicket. He almost always scored runs off leg stump deliveries and drove fluently through covers and mid-off when width was offered.

The pair was separated in the 30th over when Vineet Saxena attempted to hit the left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena over mid-on (after a similar stroke off the previous delivery fetched him a boundary), but didn’t get too much power in the stroke and holed out to Basant Mohanty who juggled the ball four times before completing the catch; the right-hand opener made 22 from 75 balls.

Six overs later – shortly before play would be called off due to bad light – Central Zone lost their skipper Mohammad Kaif leg before wicket to the left-arm spinner. Kaif leaned forward to defend, but didn’t pick the arm ball and was rapped in front of off stump, with the ball headed towards middle and leg. Umpire Vineet Kulkarni didn’t have any hesitation in sending the batsman back to the dressing room. Robin Bist batted out three deliveries, before the Umpires would call time on the day’s play. Central Zone finished the day at 74 for two from 36 overs, with Srivastava unbeaten on 46 and Bist yet to open his account.

For East Zone, Dinda bowled well with the new ball, but he lacked support from the other end. Saxena finished with figures of two for 23 from his eight overs, while Alok Mangaraj and Basant Mohanty bowled tidily and kept the flow of runs in check. East Zone could have picked more than two wickets had the fielders converted the half-chances that came their way; on two occasions, the ball took the outside edge of the bat and flew low through the slip cordon who weren’t alert enough to pouch it.

Brief Scores:

East Zone 1st Innings: 232 in 101.5 overs (Ishank Jaggi 100*, Shiv Gautam 34, Jalaj Saxena 5-62)

Central Zone 1st Innings: 74-2 in 36.0 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 46*, Iresh Saxena 2-23)