Central Zone top-order batters, led by Danish Malewar, carried the team to 229 for two, giving a solid reply to West Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final here on Friday. Shubham Sharma (60) and skipper Rajat Patidar (47) were batting at stumps after Central bagged four quick wickets to end West’s first innings at 438. Central need a further 209 runs to take an innings lead. 

Malewar, who made a double hundred in the quarter-final against North-East Zone, took his time to settle down before making 76, as his opening partner Ayush Pandey (40) went off the blocks briskly. Malewar and Shubham stitched together a 93-run alliance for the second wicket to ensure that they did not waste a firm beginning. 

In the morning session, West, starting from overnight 363 for six, motored on to 411 for six as skipper Shardul Thakur, overnight 24, duly completed his 
fifty off 83 balls with a boundary off pacer Yash Thakur. The seventh wicket partnership also touched 84, but the run out of Thakur, who attempted a tight run and ended up on the same end as Kotian, turned the tide in favour of Central. They plucked the next three wickets of Kotian, Jadeja and Arzan Nagwaswalla for 27 runs to prevent West from posting a much bigger total.