Left-arm speedster Zaheer Khan ripped through the Central Zone batting line-up with a six-wicket haul and helped West Zone take firm control of the proceedings on the first day of the four-day Duleep Trophy league match in Aurangabad on Friday.

The Baroda paceman, ignored by the national selectors for the ongoing one-day series against Sri Lanka, speared through the Central batting after they were 95 for one at one stage.

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Central were shot out for 206, with major contributions coming from opener Amit Pagis (32), skipper Mohammad Kaif (56), who batted at number three, and number five Abbas Ali (45), as

Zaheer finished with an impressive 6 for 54.

In reply, West were 104 for 2 after recovering from a difficult 38 for two, the openers, Dheeraj Jadhav and Satyajit Parab, falling cheaply.

An attractive unbeaten 58 from Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer and his unfinished third-wicket stand of 66 runs with Baroda's Jacob Martin (19 not out) saw them through the day.

Scoreboard

Central Zone (1st innings):
S Bangar c Jadhav b Zaheer 6
A Pagnis st P Patel b Powar 32
M Kaif c M Patel b Bahutule 56
J Yadav c P Patel b Powar 4
Abbas Ali c P Patel b Zaheer 45
D Bundela b Zaheer 8
N Ojha lbw Zaheer 0
P Chawla c Jaffer b Zaheer 2
Harvinder Singh c Jaffer b Powar 0
P Gupta c Jaffer b Zaheer 11
Kulmani Parida not out 5
Extras: (b 5, lb 14, nb 18) 37
Total: (All out) 206

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-95, 3-100, 4-141, 5-168, 6-170, 7-179, 8-181, 9-187.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 17.4-5-54-6, Rakesh Patel 7-1-17-0, Munaf Patel 5-1-17-0, Ramesh Powar 20-3-68-3, Sairaj Bahutule 10-0-31-1.

West Zone (1^st innings):
Dheeraj Jadhav b Harvinder Singh 1
S Parab c Bangar b Gupta 23
Wasim Jaffer batting 58
Jacob Martin batting 19
Extras: (b 2, w 1) 3
Total: (For 2 wickets) 104

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-38

Bowling: Harvinder Singh 9-0-38-1, Sanjay Bangar 6-2-13-0, Praveen Gupta 8-1-33-1, Kulamani Parida 3-0-11-0, Piyush Chawla 3-1-3-0, Abbas Ali 1-0-4-0.