Hyderabad, Oct 15: Yuvraj Singh celebrated his return to first-class cricket by scoring his third double-hundred and powering North Zone to 451. The southpaw, who resumed the day on 133, got to his double-century with a sweep off Murali Kartik, but perished soon after when he offered the left-arm spinner a simple return catch to be dismissed for 208 – one run shy of his best effort.

North Zone, who were 346 for four overnight, would lose the wickets of Paras Dogra and Rishi Dhawan in the fifth and sixth overs of the day respectively. Dogra, who looked good on Day 1, was unfortunately given out leg before wicket off the bowling of Praveen Kumar; unfortunate because umpire Shahvir Tarapore didn’t spot the ball brushing the inside edge of the bat. Dhawan too was unlucky; in his case, it was a spectacular catch from Mohammad Kaif that forced him to head back to the dressing room.

Though the tail didn’t contribute too much, Yuvraj Singh didn’t seem to be too perturbed by the collapse at the other end. Keen to spend as much time as possible in the middle – with an eye on claiming a place in the Indian Test team for the series against England – the left-hander batted for 333 minutes and consumed 241 deliveries. Relying on timing rather than power, he played some sumptuous drives – down the ground and in the cover area. He hit thirteen boundaries on the day, to go with one six, which accounted for more than 77 percent of the runs he scored today.

Murali Kartik, who was Central Zone’s best bowler, should have had more than the four wickets he finished with. On a surface that didn’t offer him too much assistance, Kartik brought all his experience to play, used all his variations and troubled the North Zone batsmen consistently. Praveen Kumar too would finish with four wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rituraj Singh would pick up a wicket each.

Central Zone began their chase in earnest, with openers Tanmay Srivastava and Vineet Saxena seeing off the threat posed by the new ball. The pair played the conservative game and didn’t take too many chances; more importantly, they batted together for over two hours and accumulated 64 runs in 30 overs.

Srivastava was the first batsman to be dismissed when an acrobatic piece of fielding by Rishi Dhawan, followed by a direct hit at the non-striker’s end caught him short of his ground; he made 23 from 89 balls during his 146-minute vigil at the crease. Saxena – the one batsman in the Central Zone line-up best suited to play a long innings – would follow next when he edged one from Amit Mishra to be caught at slip; he made 33 from 115 balls.

With the wickets of Robin Bist and Ashok Menaria, Central Zone would slip from 64 for no loss to 84 for four in the space of nine overs. Skipper Mohammad Kaif and Jalaj Saxena then kept the North Zone bowlers at bay for the next ten overs adding 33 runs. That’s when Saxena attempted an ugly hoick to the leg-side, only to miss the ball and get trapped lbw.

Kaif would wage a lone battle for Central Zone; when stumps were drawn, he had batted for 115 minutes and would remain unbeaten on 34. Mahesh Rawat had made 14. Central Zone finished the day at 146 for five, 305 runs behind North Zone.

Amit Mishra was the most impressive of the North Zone bowlers, while Parvinder Awana would be the most successful with two wickets. Rishi Dhawan too bowled well and was rewarded with the wicket of Saxena.

Brief Scores:

North Zone 1st Innings: 451 in 119.2 overs (Yuvraj Singh 208, Shikhar Dhawan 121, Praveen Kumar 4-92, Murali Kartik 4-120)

Central Zone 1st Innings: 146-5 in 58 overs (Vineet Saxena 33, Mohammad Kaif 34, Parvinder Awana 2-29)