Both teams had truncated nets today as they did not want to expose themselves to needless risks with the ball rising disconcertingly on the new wicket. If that is any indication, seamers will dictate the course of the match.

But Central Zone, outright winners over North Zone, were further buoyed up by the presence of Amay Khurasia, Jay Prakash Yadav and Gynanendra Pandey, all of whom were in the India A side against West Indies A.

Central also have a good seam attack with Ashish Winston Zaidi and Obaid Kamal spearheading their new ball bowling operations. The other medium-pacer's slot would be a toss-up between Devendra Bundela and Sanjay Bangar.

With Khurasia, Pandey, Jay Prakash Yadav, Jyoti Yadav, Gagan Khoda and the promising Mohammad Kaif forming the batting backbone, Central look a really well-balanced side.

Ifthere is any relative weakness, it is the spin department which lack the necessary quality and experience. Moreover, the fact that two of their spinners -- off-spinner Pritam Gandhe and left-arm Murali Kartik -- are suffering from injuries does not help their cause.

The presence of a number of all-rounders gives West Zone manager Ashok Mankad options to boost both the batting and the bowling.

West are likely to go in with three spinners and as many seamers, which means off-spinning all-rounder Tushar Arothe may be sidelined in favour of medium-pacer Abey Kuruvilla.

The spin attack will be manned by left-arm Nilesh Kulkarni and all-rounders Sairaj Bahutule (leg-spin) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (off-spin).

The teams:

West Zone: Hrishikesh Kanitkar (captain), Sairaj Bahutule, Nilesh Kulkarni, Sameer Dighe (wicket-keeper), Jatin Paranjpe, Wasim Jaffer, Abey Kuruvilla, Paras Mhambrey, Tushar Arothe, Jacob Martin, Connor Williams, Abhijit Kale, Sitanshu Kotak, Iqbal Siddique, Prashant Bhat.Manager: Ashok Mankad.

Central Zone: Gyanendra Pandey (captain), Gagan Khoda, Mohammad Kaif, Manoj Mudgal (wicket-keeper), Obiad Kamal, Yogesh Ghare, Pritam Gandhe, Amay Khurasia, Jyoti Yadav, Jai Prakash Yadav, Murli Kartik, K Padria, Rahul Kanwar, Sanjay Bangar, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Devendra Bundela. Manager: Sunder Murthy.

Umpires: VK Ramaswamy (Hyderabad) and AV Jayprakash (Karnataka).

Match observer: Vijay Joshi (Vidarbha)