da heads bet： Wasim Jaffer, with an unbeaten century, played the sheet anchorrole to perfection as West Zone scored 237 for three off 93 oversat close of play on the third day of the five day Duleep Trophyfinal against North Zone at the Eden Gardens on Sunday
Partab Ramchand19-Dec-1999Wasim Jaffer, with an unbeaten century, played the sheet anchorrole to perfection as West Zone scored 237 for three off 93 oversat close of play on the third day of the five day Duleep Trophyfinal against North Zone at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. This wasin reply to North Zone’s first innings total of 468.Resuming at eight for no loss, West Zone openers Jaffer andCecil Williams proceeded cautiously to 47. Then the latter, whogot a hundred in the semifinal against East Zone, was caught byDahiya off Robin Singh for 21. AV Kale joined Jaffer and the twoput on 66 runs for the second wicket off 29.4 overs. Like theNorth Zone batsmen, the West Zone batsmen too played a waitinggame on a wicket that gave little help to the bowlers. Kale,after batting almost two hours for 30, was caught by Shewag offRobin Singh. He faced 83 balls and hit four of them to the fence.Skipper Amol Mujumdar joined Jaffer and the two showed a lotof patience and concentration in negotiating the attack.The partnership added 106 runs for the third wicket from40.4 overs before the captain was adjudged leg before to Sodhifor 52. Mujumdar faced 137 balls and hit eight boundaries.Joined by Vinod Kambli, Jaffer proceeded serenely to his century.At close he was unbeaten with 107 which was compiled off 270 balls.He hit 15 fours. Kambli who started off in fluent fashion wasbatting with ten runs off eleven balls with two fours. West Zonestill require 232 runs to take the vital first innings lead andmuch would depend on this pair on the morrow. North Zone, on theother hand, will need a quick wicket or two if they hope tosnatch the first innings lead – which seems the all importantfactor right now in the match.Like the West Zone bowlers, the North Zone bowlers too toiledon an unfriendly pitch. Amit Bhandari, besides being expensive,sent down nine no balls. Navdeep Singh and Nikhil Chopra weresteady. Only Robin Singh was really impressive.