North Zone and Central Zone scored comfortable victories on the opening day of the inter zonal tournament (under-19) for the CK Nayudu Trophy at Chennai on Sunday. While North Zone defeated South Zone by eight wickets, Central beat East Zone by six wickets.

At the IIT Chemplast ground, put in to bat, South Zone were all out for 224 runs in 49.3 overs. The innings was built around a third wicket partnership of 150 runs between opener BA Pai (76) and R Satish (73). They came together when South Zone were 26 for two. Pai faced 122 balls and hit four fours and a six while Satish faced 92 balls and hit four of them to the ropes. There was precious little batting once this stand was broken and South Zone lost eight wickets for 48 runs off 10.4 overs. Medium pacer A Uniyal who took the first two wickets to fall was the most successful bowler with three for 40.

South Zone remained in the hunt when they dismissed Manish Sharma and skipper Yuvraj Singh for 59 runs. But RS Ricky (87) and G Gambhir (85) steered North Zone to victory without any further loss with an unbroken third wicket partnership of 166 runs from 34.5 overs. While Ricky faced 139 balls and hit four of them to the fence, the more aggressive Gambhir faced 102 balls and hit seven fours and a six.

In the other match at the AC Tech grounds, put in to bat, East Zone were all out for 155 in 47 overs. Arindam Das (34) and SG Das (14) added 40 runs for the second wicket in the only partnership of note. Wicketkeeper MS Dhoni came up with a valuable contribution of 37 in the middle order. Central Zone in reply lost two wickets for 18. But VA Saxena (44) and Parvinder Singh (73) put them on the road to victory with a third wicket stand of 113 runs off 30.2 overs. Saxena faced 106 balls and hit three fours while Parvinder Singh faced 117 balls and hit three of them to the ropes. Central finally reached their target off 45.3 overs.

© CricInfo