Rajesh Pawar's six wickets at the Brabourne Stadium put West Zone on top yesterday. pic/atul kamble

West Zone spinner Rajesh Pawar is surprised with his six-wicket haul on a greenish Brabourne Stadium track laid out for the Duleep semi-final

Sinceu00a0making his first-class debut over a decade ago, left-arm spinner Rajesh 'Babu' Pawar must have foxed, even surprised many a batsmen with his guile.

But on Day One of the four-day Duleep Trophy semi-final between West Zone and East Zone, being played on the greens of Cricket Club of India, Pawar, for the first time in his illustrious career, was beaten.

The track prepared for this fixture had a healthy spread of grass throughout the 22 yards. And Pawar, for obvious reasons had anticipated the wicket not to assist him so much. Though he thought it will have bounce, turning the ball on it will be pretty much impossible. But to his surprise, he not only got the bounce but a reasonable amount of turn as well.

"I had not expected so much turn on the first day itself," he said after claiming six East Zone wickets, three out of which three were typical left-arm spinner's wickets, inducing an edge after squaring the batsmen up.

Eventually, East Zone were bundled for a paltry 171 and West had managed to erase 102 at stumps, with Bhavik Thaker and Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 42 and 34 respectively. Skipper Wasim Jaffer (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (23) were the two West batsmen dismissed.

The former Mumbai and now Baroda spinner felt that he had never been in such rhythm and control ever in his 10-year long career.

So, even when the Kookaburra ball was tossed at him by skipper Jaffer, Pawar had no difficulty making the switch from the Sanspareils Greenlands (SG).

Pawar attributed the seamless rhythm and control to the Times Shield in which he had turned out for his employers, Indian Oil.

"Just last week I had played a match for my employers. Even then I could sense that I am bowling in top form. The entire mechanism appeared to be well-oiled," Pawar said.

Deceptive loop
Meanwhile, former India left-armer and East Zone coach Utpal Chatterjee felt that the reason behind Pawar's success on the day was the deceptive loop the puny spinner generated.

"He was controlling the flight amazingly well. And he backed that up with an extremely disciplined line and length," Chatterjee said.

Rajesh Pawar's six wickets at the Brabourne Stadium put West Zone on top yesterday. pic/atul kamble