Left-arm speedster Zaheer Khan ripped through the Central Zone batting line-up with a six-wicket haul and helped West Zone take firm control of the proceedings on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy league match in Aurangabad on Friday.
The Baroda paceman, ignored by the national selectors for the ongoing one-day series against Sri Lanka, speared through the Central batting after they were 95 for one at one stage.
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Zaheer finished with an impressive 6 for 54.
In reply, West were 104 for 2 after recovering from a difficult 38 for two, the openers, Dheeraj Jadhav and Satyajit Parab, falling cheaply.
An attractive unbeaten 58 from Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer and his unfinished third-wicket stand of 66 runs with Baroda's Jacob Martin (19 not out) saw them through the day.
Scoreboard
Central Zone (1st innings):
S Bangar c Jadhav b Zaheer 6
A Pagnis st P Patel b Powar 32
M Kaif c M Patel b Bahutule 56
J Yadav c P Patel b Powar 4
Abbas Ali c P Patel b Zaheer 45
D Bundela b Zaheer 8
N Ojha lbw Zaheer 0
P Chawla c Jaffer b Zaheer 2
Harvinder Singh c Jaffer b Powar 0
P Gupta c Jaffer b Zaheer 11
Kulmani Parida not out 5
Extras: (b 5, lb 14, nb 18) 37
Total: (All out) 206
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-95, 3-100, 4-141, 5-168, 6-170, 7-179, 8-181, 9-187.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 17.4-5-54-6, Rakesh Patel 7-1-17-0, Munaf Patel 5-1-17-0, Ramesh Powar 20-3-68-3, Sairaj Bahutule 10-0-31-1.
West Zone (1st innings):
Dheeraj Jadhav b Harvinder Singh 1
S Parab c Bangar b Gupta 23
Wasim Jaffer batting 58
Jacob Martin batting 19
Extras: (b 2, w 1) 3
Total: (For 2 wickets) 104
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-38
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 9-0-38-1, Sanjay Bangar 6-2-13-0, Praveen Gupta 8-1-33-1, Kulamani Parida 3-0-11-0, Piyush Chawla 3-1-3-0, Abbas Ali 1-0-4-0.
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