Indore, Feb 13: After the bowlers made merry on the green track at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on the opening day, Wriddhiman Saha stood out with a fine knock of 170 on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy final. Saha’s marathon innings guided East Zone to a total of 370, and a healthy first-innings lead of 237, against Central Zone.

Saha resumed batting with Anustup Majumdar (52) on Day 2on 14 and with his team at 88 for three.Despite the change of batting partners, Saha stood his ground firmly, playing some attractive strokes. He smashed 25 fours and a six during his vigil of 245 balls. FirstNatraj Behera (46), and then Bilap Samantray (41), accompanied Saha at the crease for a short time after Majumdar’s departure.

Even as Saha was going strong, East’s innings was stalled when they lost three lower-order wickets in a span of five overs. Ashoke Dinda, who had wrecked Central’s batting in the first innings with four wickets, carried the confidence into his batting. Last man in, he used the long handle to hit three boundaries and two sixes, pulling off a 16-ball cameo of 24 runs. His party ended when Saha got stumped off a Piyush Chawla delivery to become the last man out.

Chawla (three for 73), along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (three for 80) and TP Sudhindra (three for 74), picked three scalps each for Central Zone while Rituraj Singh picked a solitary wicket. At stumps on Day 2, Central Zone openers Naman Ojha (14*) and Jalaj Saxena (33*) had put on 48 runs on the board.

Scorecard