After a double setback early in the innings, Wasim Jaffer (52) and Jacob Martin (25) steadied the West Zone innings to take them safely to 94 for 2 at the end of the second day of their Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone at the Vidarbha CA Ground at Nagpur on Friday.

After being in the field for close to two days, West Zone got off to a shaky start losing opener Connor Williams who was bowled by Shalab Sriwastava off the fourth balls of the innings. This brought in Hrishikesh Kanitkar (14) to the crease and along with the other opener Wasim Jaffer he took the score to 37. Kanitkar was then bowled by Rahul Kanwat in the 13th over. Thereafter, Martin and Jaffer guided the West Zone team to stumps with out further hiccups.

Earlier, resuming at the score of 342 for 3, overnight batsmen Jai P Yadav (177) and Raja Ali added eight more runs, thereby extending their fourth wicket partnership to 106 runs. Ali was the first to go, being run out. Yadav himself did not last long and after a 402-minute stay at the crease, he departed after being bowled by Zaheer Khan. Yadav faced 290 balls and hit 25 boundaries and a six. Then Abhay Sharma (45) and Kanwat (28) took the score to 415, Sairaj Bahutule had Kanwat caught by Jaffer.

The fall of Kanwat brought back Mohd Kaif to the crease after he had retired hurt on Thursday when he had scored 46. Abhay Sharma in the company of Kaif forged a 57-run seventh wicket partnership before being castled by Bahutule. Then Kaif with the help of the tailenders took the score along to 536. Kaif remained unbeaten on 119. During a 263-minute stay at the crease, Kaif faced 216 balls and found the boundary ropes 17 times.

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