da heads bet： Nikhil Chopra slammed an unbeaten 132 at No 8 as North Zone piled up amassive total of 543 on the second day of their five day Duleep Trophysemifinal against holders Central Zone at Guwahati on Friday
Partab Ramchand10-Dec-1999Nikhil Chopra slammed an unbeaten 132 at No 8 as North Zone piled up amassive total of 543 on the second day of their five day Duleep Trophysemifinal against holders Central Zone at Guwahati on Friday. Atstumps Central were 24 for one in reply.Central must have nurtured hopes of restricting the North total toreasonable limits when the obdurate Rajiv Nayyar fell in the fourthover of the morning. He was bowled by Gandhe without adding to hisovernight score of 13 and this made North Zone 305 for six which was abit of setback after they had been 260 for two.Chopra entered at this stage and at once set about reviving North’shopes of a big total. First with Dinesh Mongia (22) he added 51 runsfor the seventh wicket in 15.2 overs. Navdeep Singh (11) did not lastlong and at his fall North Zone were 372 for eight.Shakti Singh, no mean batsman, came in at No 10 signifying North’sbatting depth. He and Chopra settled down comfortably and then gotentrenched in a ninth wicket partnership which ultimately realized 145runs from 43.3 overs in a trifle over three hours. Chopra got hishundred and shortly afterwards Shakti Singh reached his halfcentury. Finally at 517, Shakti was out for 50 for which he faced 117balls, with four hits to the ropes and one over it.Last man R Singh held on for 20 minutes over a single while Choprawent for the bowling in a tenth wicket partnership that added 26 runsfrom 4.2 overs. At the end of the innings, Chopra had batted almostfive hours, faced 227 balls and hit 12 fours and five sixes. AW Zaidiand Hirwani took three wickets each, while Bangar and Gandhe capturedtwo each.North Zone completed a profitable day by taking a quick wicket, RSingh bowling Bangar with the first delivery of the innings whenCentral batted. Jyoti Yadav (8) and Abbas Ali (15) were batting atclose of play.