South Zone took the bowling honours on the opening day of their CK Nayudu Trophy Semifinal amtch against West Zone at the Sunshine ground in Cuttack on Wednesday. After bundling out West for just 194, South Zone proceeded to lose three quick wickets to end the day at 53 for 3.

Electing to bat, West made a solid start with openers JN Saha (41) and B Joshi (37) adding 72 runs in 19.1 overs. But the fall of Joshi triggered a collapse and the innings folded up in the 70th over of the innings. Only Y Takowle (43) made any significant contribution. The wickets were shared by all around with Tamil Nadu medium pacer L Balaji (3 for 51) and Mohd Faiq (3 for 29) being the pick.

South Zone in response made a shaky start losing TS Suman (4) off the third ball of the innings, bowled by Kulkarni. Deepak Chougule (1) was the next to be dismissed in the third over of the innings. Chougule was bowled by Uday Kulkarni. Then Tahir Hussain and Arjun Yadav (29 batting) took the score on to 46 when Tahir was caught by Kulkarni off S Yadav. Therafter, Arjun and ASK Varma (1 batting) took the team to stumps.

© CricInfo