Though they lost a few wickets at the fag end of the first day's play, Central Zone ended at 284 for 5 in their CK Nayudu Trophy semifinal encounter against North Zone at the Engineering School ground in Cuttack on Wednesday.

Put into bat, Central Zone were pegged on the back foot early on with opener Surender Singh (13) retiring hurt after facing just 19 balls. Then Anshul Kapoor (10) joined him soon in the pavilion. In the 13th over of the innings, Anshul was caught by Paras Dogra off Joginder Singh. Sachin Dholpure joined the other opener Amit Deshpande (40) and took the score to 83. Amit Deshpande was the next to depart stumped by M Vishal off J Sachdeva.

Raja Ali now came to the crease and with Sachin forged a 114 run stand for the fourth wicket. But in the last session of play, Sachin (71) departed caught by Sumit Sharma off Sandeep Sanwal off the last ball of the 62nd over. Three balls later new batsman Manoj Sriwastava (0) was bowled by Joginder Singh. Joginder came back in his next over to dismiss Vashal Shitoot (0). Though being caught in a spot of bother, Raja Ali (85 not out) and Afroj Khan (32 not out) forged a unbeaten 80 run partnership for the sixth wicket taking the team to stumps with out further hiccups.

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