Cold rule on Day One in Mohali

Cold rule on Day One in Mohali
CATEET SHARMA

MOHALI, JAN 11: All through the morning they played with a tennis ball in the long room or either watched the Australia-West Indies ODI on TV. From sitting near the heater to sporting all kinds of stylish caps and wearing loads of wollens (Nayan Mongia wore two pairs of socks), they did almost everything except venturing outside their cosy dressing rooms. On a day when the mercury was well below the 10 degrees mark, it was but natural. Cricket? Well, it only began at 2.45 p.m.

West Zone were 67 for the loss of one wicket from 30 overs at the end of the first day’s play of their Duleep Trophy league match against North Zone at the PCA Stadium here on Thursday.

A thick layer of fog accompanied with an intense cold wave from the Himalayas forced the match to be delayed by more than five hours before the elusive sun finally emerged at 2 p.m, much to the respite of the players and the officials.

The North Zone skipper Vikram Rathore’s remarkable luck with the coin continued as he won the toss again and did exactly what he had revealed on Wednesday; elected to field on a juicy PCA wicket.

Scoreboard
West Zone (Ist innings): Wasim Jaffer batting 24 (87b, 2x4, 140m), C Williams lbw Surinder 21 (42b, 3x4, 57m), H Kanitkar batting 17 (54b, 3x4, 81m); Extras (3nb, 2lb); Total (for one wicket, 30 overs) 67.
Fall of wicket: 1-40
Bowling: A Nehra 8-0-25-0 (3nb), Gagandeep Singh 9-3-22-0, Surinder Singh 8-3-16-1, Reetinder Sodhi 4-3-1-0, Sarandeep Singh 1-0-1-0.