Duleep Trophy 2023: Central Zone take 124-run lead on Day 2 after bowling out East Zone for 120

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Central Zone took a 124-run lead on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy 2023 match against East Zone after bowling out the latter for 122 runs in the first innings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Central Zone finished the day on 64/0 in the second innings after getting bundled out for 182 runs in the first innings on Day 1. Pacer Avesh Khan and left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar shared six wickets equally among them to hasten the fall of East Zone while Murasingh took a five-for the day earlier for East Zone.

They resumed from the overnight 32 for 2 and were in need of a solid partnership to cover the early losses. Having already lost captain and prolific opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, East's biggest hope of reaching a healthy total was experienced Anustup Majumdar and Riyan Parag.

Majumdar fell cheaply for 4, while Parag showed glimpses of his skills while making a 46-ball 33. Central captain and pacer Shivam Mavi jettisoned Parag, and it signalled the end of fight for East.

Murasingh played a cameo of 34-ball 30 but that only helped to reduce the lead of Central. In their second innings, Central gave a much better account of themselves as openers Himanshu Mantri (25) and Vivek Singh (34) stayed till the close on the second day to hand their team a definite edge.

With inputs from PTI