Visakhapatnam, Feb 3: South Zone made 298/3 on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy final being played at Vizag in reply to North Zone’s first innings score of 337. South Zone trail by 39 runs in the first innings at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.

With seven wickets in hand and S Badrinath (97*) and B Sumanth (21*) at the crease, South Zone are in a commanding position to take a substantial first innings lead.

Opener Robin Uthappa made a quick 66 runs (8 X 4, 2 X 6) before a failed pull shot off Joginder Sharma landed in the hands of Amit Mishra at mid-off.

But Badrinath and Manish Pandey continued to build on the start provided by Uthappa and Abhinav Mukund (34 runs). Pandey seemed to continue from where he left off in the semi-final. The Karnataka youngster made a brilliant 74 studded with five fours and five sixes before falling to Sumit Narwal.

Badrinath, meanwhile, continued making runs at the other end with ten fours and a six to his credit.

Of the North Zone bowlers, only Narwal and Sharma were able to pick wickets.

Earlier, resuming on their overnight score of 266 for the loss of seven wickets, North Zone lost their remaining three wickets in just 11.1 overs. Paras Dogra was their first innings hero for scoring a magnificent 167 runs.

Brief score:

North Zone: 1st Innings 337 all out in 106.1 overs (P Dogra 167, Joginder Sharma 30, Pragyan Ojha 3/ 49, S Aravind 3/56)

South Zone: 1st innings 298/3 in 70 overs (S Badrinath 97*, M Pandey 74, S Narwal 2/57)

South Zone Playing XI: A Mukund, RV Uthappa, MK Pandey, S Badrinath ( c ), Amit Verma, B Sumanth, CM Gautam(wk), R Vinay Kumar, A Mithun, PP Ojha, S Aravind

North Zone Playing XI: N Saini, S Dhawan, Mandeep, M Manhas, P Dogra, I Sharma, S Narwal, Yashpal Singh, A Mishra ( c ), Joginder Sharma, U Kaul (wk)