The Day 2 of Duleep Trophy 2022 semi-final between Central Zone and West Zone turned out to be a controversial one. Central Zone batter Venkatesh Iyer became victim of a nasty throw by West Zone bowler Chintan Gaja that hit him on the neck.
Venkatesh was in agonizing pain and fell on the ground. Players rushed to his aid after the unnecessary throw. Gaja realized his mistake almost immediately and apologised to him. Venkatesh removed his helmet and lay on the ground.
Ambulance was brought into the ground to rush Venkatesh to the hospital. The stretcher was taken out of the ambulance but Venkatesh got back on his feet and walked outside the ground as a show of strength.
Before walking off the field the southpaw had hit a six in an attempt to counterattack.
After the first session, Venkatesh walked out to the middle again. This time he hit two boundaries, one through covers and one towards third man off Atit Sheth’s bowling. He lost his wicket to Tanush Kotian as he edged one to wicketkeeper Het Patel.
The 27-year-old scored 14 runs from just 9 deliveries. Central Zone suffered a batting collapse and managed to post just 128 in the first innings on Day 2 at SNR College Cricket Ground, Coimbatore.
Skipper Karan Sharma top-scored for his team with 34 runs from 64 deliveries. Jaydev Unadkat and Kotian took three wickets each. Sheth bagged two whereas Gaja and Shams Mulani got two wickets each.
Earlier, West Zone could not add much to their overnight score. Rahul Tripathi scored five more runs on Day 2 morning and got out to Aniket Choudhary. West Zone got all out for 257 but still managed a 129-run lead after super bowling display.
