Chennai, Jan 27: Mumbai batsman Suryakumar Yadav came to West Zone’s rescue with a blazing century on Day 1 of their Duleep Trophy quarterfinal outing against East Zone. Not only did Yadav score 134 off just 137 deliveries, the middle-order batsman’s 153-run stand with Cheteshwar Pujara helped take the West Zone innings from 41 for four to 299 for the loss of seven wickets at the end of day’s play.

Earlier, East Zone captain Natraj Behera won the toss and elected to field first at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium at Valsad. East Zone pacers Ashok Dinda, Basant Mohanty and Abu Nechim Ahmed vindicated their captain’s decision by reducing their opponents to 41 for four in the first session itself. Ahmed was particularly impressive early on as he dismissed both Abhishek Nayar (14) and Ambati Rayudu (9).

However, Pujara and Yadav bailed West Zone out with a fifth-wicket stand that reflected their contrasting batting styles. Where Yadav batted at nearly a run-a-ball right through his innings, Pujara’s 55-run knock came off 107 deliveries.

Abu Nechim, nevertheless, struck in the 57th over of the innings to remove Pujara, but by this time West Zone had already reached a score of 194. Yadav, on the other hand, fell to left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem with the West Zone score at 233. Rohit Motwani and Akshay Darekar then struck a 66-run stand before Motwani (45) was dismissed by Dinda in the 88th over of the day.

Darekar remained unbeaten on 23 as stumps were called at the fall of Motwani’s wicket.

Scorecard