Rajiv Nayyar, who has an insatiable appetite for runs, hit an unbeaten105 to help North Zone towards a challenging total of 469 in theirfirst innings on the second day of their five day Duleep Trophy finalagainst West Zone at the Eden Gardens in

Partab Ramchand18-Dec-1999Rajiv Nayyar, who has an insatiable appetite for runs, hit an unbeaten105 to help North Zone towards a challenging total of 469 in theirfirst innings on the second day of their five day Duleep Trophy finalagainst West Zone at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta on Saturday. Atstumps West Zone were eight for no loss.Nayyar, the 31-year-old right hander from Himachal Pradesh has been intremendous form this season. His crowning glory was the 271 hecompiled in the North Zone Ranji Trophy match against Jammu & Kashmirlast month when he batted 1015 minutes – the longest innings in thehistory of first class cricket. He has monumental patience and a gooddefence and he showed the twin qualities in abundant measure onSaturday.North Zone, who resumed on 263 for four, did not lose a fifth wickettill well into the morning’s play thanks to some good work bynightwatchman Navdeep Singh. He helped Rajiv Nayyar to add 64 runs forthe fifth wicket off 29 overs before he was caught by wicketkeeper PHPatel off Mhambrey for 23. Navdeep defended dourly for 136 minutes. Hefaced 85 balls and hit two boundaries.Much was expected of the inform Virendra Shewag who got 274 in thequarterfinal against South Zone. But he was caught by Wasim Jaffar offMhambrey for 13. Vijay Dahiya, also expected to be among the runs, wascaught by Williams off Kulkarni for 10. And when Nikhil Chopra, whogot 132 in the semifinal against holders Central Zone, was bowled byZakir Khan for two, North Zone had slid to 383 for eight.However the obdurate Nayyar was still around and with the last twobatsmen, lifted the North Zone score by 86 runs. First, with AmitBhandari (20) he added 44 runs for the ninth wicket off 10.5overs. And then Robin Singh (24) not only helped Nayyar to put on 42runs for the last wicket from 10 overs but also enabled him to get tohis second hundred in this year’s competition. Nayyar had earlierscored 118 against South Zone. In typical fashion, Nayyar batted 352minutes, faced 247 balls and hit 15 fours.It was hard toil for the West Zone bowlers on an unfriendly track butthey stuck to their task manfully. The bowling was mainly in the handsof three medium pacers – Mhambrey, Khan and Siddiqui – and left armspinner Nilesh Kulkarni. While the seamers found the goingparticularly tough, Kulkarni was steady and also managed to extractsome turn and was rewarded with five wickets for 97 runs after sendingdown 64.5 overs. He took three of the six wickets to fall onSaturday. Mhambrey and Khan, frustrated by the flat pitch, sent downseven and ten no balls respectively. In addition, Mhambrey also bowledtwo wides.