Ishan Kishan and Kumar Kushagra added 144 without being parted, and Mohammed Siraj’s 14 overs cost 96

East Zone won the toss at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, chose to bat, and then batted for the entire day. At stumps on day one of the Duleep Trophy final they were 385 for 4 from 79 overs. Ishan Kishan was 111 not out, Kumar Kushagra 63 not out, and the last ten overs of the day had passed at a brisk pace without a wicket falling.

The openers treated it like a one-day game

Abhimanyu Easwaran and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi put on 100 for the first wicket in 88 balls. That is a run rate of nearly seven, on the opening morning of a five-day final, against an attack containing Mohammed Siraj.

Easwaran got to fifty off 46 balls with seven fours and a six. Sooryavanshi made 44 off 37 with five fours and a six before Chama Milind had him caught by a substitute fielder in the 15th over, which ended the stand on exactly 100. Easwaran carried on to 72 off 86 and then went to a run out in the 25th over, Devdutt Padikkal throwing and Narayan Jagadeesan collecting.

Shikhar Mohan held the middle together

Sudip Kumar Gharami lasted 25 balls for six. That left Shikhar Mohan doing the accumulating, and he did it well: 85 off 120 balls, nine fours, three sixes, a fifty off 61 balls. Milind bowled him in the 53rd over with the score on 241, which was the last time South Zone had anything to celebrate.

Kishan’s hundred, Kushagra’s sixes

Kishan is captaining East Zone and keeping wicket in this final. He reached fifty off 71 balls without a six in it, then went to his hundred off 122 balls with 13 fours and one six, and finished the day on 111 from 135.

Kushagra played the more aggressive hand. He got to fifty off 67 balls with four fours and three sixes, and by the close he had five sixes and 63 from 75 balls. The fifth-wicket stand is worth 144 and it is unbroken, which means two Jharkhand wicketkeepers have batted South Zone out of the first day.

Siraj’s figures are the story on the other side

Mohammed Siraj bowled 14 overs, conceded 96, took nothing, and went at 6.85 an over with two no-balls in it. Those are white-ball numbers. Tripurana Vijay got through 22 overs for 114 and one wicket. Shreyas Gopal sent down 19 for 77 and did not take one.

Milind was the only South Zone bowler who threatened, and 13 overs for 56 and two wickets is a decent day’s work in that context. MD Nidheesh was the most economical at 10 overs for 39. Between them, six bowlers took three wickets. The fourth was the run out.

What day two is for

East Zone still have Anukul Roy, Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar to come, which is a lot of batting for a side already past 385, and a decent bowling attack waiting behind it. South Zone bat Jagadeesan, Ricky Bhui, Padikkal, Shaik Rasheed, captain Tilak Varma and Ravichandran Smaran, so the runs are there if the first innings ever ends.

The simplest way to read Sunday is this. South Zone picked the Duleep final as the game to give Siraj and Padikkal an outing in, and on day one their frontline seamer bowled 14 overs for 96 runs and no wicket.

Stay across the Duleep Trophy final