CHENNAI: Asian sub-junior girls' champion Ramasamy Aarthie beat world girls' under-12 champion Koneru Humpy to emerge sole leader with 5.5 points at the end of the sixth round of the 25th Sportstar National Women B chess championship.

Kotak, Kale shine for West Zone

RAJKOT: Sitanshu Kotak's unbeaten 72, and Abhijit Kale's 62 helped West Zone score 233-4 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy semi-finals against East Zone.

Scoreboard

West Zone (1st innings): Samir Dighe c Sawant b Morris 8, Wasim Jaffer b Shukla 7, Jatin Paranjpe b Shukla 49, Abhijit Kale c Das b Chatterjee 62, Sitanshu Kotak batting 72, Jacob Martin batting 18; Extras: (7lb, 3w, 7nb) 17. Total: (for four wickets in 90 overs) 233

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-23, 3-117, 4-168

Bowling: Morris 15.3-3-55-1, Shukla 18-4-37-2, Chatterjee 34-11-67-1, Mazumdar 9-0-38-0, Iqbal Khan 12.3-4-23-0, Raul 1-0-6-0

Deadly spell by medium-pacer Bangar

VALSAD: A fine bowling spell by medium-pacerSanjay Bangar followed by a solid knock of 84 (16x4) by opener Jyoti Yadav gave Central Zone an upper hand against North Zone on the first day of the five-day semi-final tie at the Sardar Patel Stadium here on Wednesday.

Scoreboard

North Zone (1st innings): Ashu Dani c Khoda b Bangar 21, Vikram Rathore c Bangar b Kamal 5, Rajiv Nayyar c Kamal b Zaidi 23, Pankaj Dharmani c Kaif b Kamal 0, Pradeep Jain c Mudgal b Bangar 3, Virender Sehwag c Gandhe b Kamal 32, Dinesh Mongia lbw Bangar 2, Vijay Dahiya c Mudgal b Bangar 0, Harvinder Singh c Gandhe b Kamal 8, Vineet Jain c Mudgal b Bangar 5, Ashish Nehra not out 0. Extras: (4lb, 10nb) 14. Total: (all out in 36.5 overs; 198 mins) 113Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-40, 3-41, 4-56, 5-57, 6-60, 7-73, 8-96, 9-113Bowling: Kamal 15.5-3-49-4, Zaidi 9-1-38-1, Bangar 11-5-17-5, Bundela 1-0-5-0Central Zone (1st innings): Jyoti Yadav c Sehwag b Harvinder 84, Gagan Khoda b V Jain 0, Sanjay Bangar batting 42, Mohammad Kaif batting 4. Extras: (3lb, 10nb) 13. Total: (for twowickets in 44 overs) 143

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-134

Bowling: H Singh 11-1-47-1, V Jain 11-2-40-1, Nehra 8-2-28-0, Dani 4-3-1-0.