Opener Gautam Gambhir hit a magnificent 86 to propel North Zone to a comfortable 252 for four against East Zone on the opening day of the Group B Duleep Trophy League match at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati on Friday.
North Zone captain Mithun Manhas elected to bat but Gambhir and fellow opener Akash Chopra found it difficult to score runs initially.
Debashis Mohanty got Chopra's leg before wicket after he scored 12 (4x2) in the 14th over with the scoreboard reading 29.
Raveneet Ricky (29) joined Gambhir and tried to stabilise the innings and remained on the crease for nearly 90 minutes before being caught by Mohanty off a Sourashis Lahiri delivery.
Skipper Manhas's stay in the middle also did not last long. He was caught by Laxmi Ratan Shukla off Lahiri's ball after scoring 29 runs with the scoreboard reading 116.
Yashpal Singh gave the required support to Gambhir from the other end and the duo added 96 valuable runs before Lahiri struck again claiming Gambhir's scalp in the 47th over.
Gambhir's matured innings of 86 included nine fours while Yashpal studded his innings of 65 with two sixes and nine fours.
Mahesh Rawat on 12 remained at the crease when bad light stopped play 15 minutes before schedule.
For East Zone, Lahiri was the most successful bowler taking three wickets conceding 96 runs while Mohanti claimed one.
Scorecard
North Zone 1st Innings
Akash Chopra lbw Debashis Mohanty 12
Gautam Gambhir c D Dasgupta b S Lahiri 86
Ravneet Ricky c Mohanti b Lahiri 29
Mithun Minhas c L R Shukla b Lahiri 21
Yashpal Singh batting 65
Mahesh Rawat batting 12
Extras (b 8 lb 4 nb 15) 27
Total (for four wickets) 252
Fall of Wickets: 1-29; 2-81; 3-116; 4-212
Bowling: Ashok Dinda 21-3-63-0, Debashis Mohanty 13-3-23-1, Sourav Ganguly 5-0-8-0, Sourashish Lahiri 29-4-96-3, Sibsagar Singh 9.1-1-44-0, Rohan Gavaskar 1-0-6-0.
