Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Fails, Sudip Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed Tons Prop Up East Zone In Duleep Trophy
Bengal's middle-order mainstay Sudip Gharami continued his dream run of form from the last domestic season with a stylish 146 that propelled East Zone to 355 for six against North East on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy.
Bengal's middle-order mainstay Sudip Gharami continued his dream run of form from the last domestic season with a stylish 146 that propelled East Zone to 355 for six against North East on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy here Sunday. Gharami was ably complemented by out-of-favour India player Shahbaz Ahmed, who was unbeaten on 100, as they added 150 runs for the sixth wicket to help East recover well from 138 for 5. The day started with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (8) showing why he is very much a work in progress as far as his red ball game is concerned.
He started with a whiplash through mid-wicket and another thumping cover drive before Manipur's Bishworjit Konthoujam bowled one back of length and the slash went to gully.
Abhimanyu Easwaran (15), who is no longer in India contention, was caught plumb in-front by medium pacer Jotin Singh.
Kumar Kushagra (55) and Gharami then got together for a 92-run stand for the third wicket. Kushagra looked in fine nick hitting nine boundaries off 65 balls as Gharami also slowly resurrected the innings.
However Kushagra's dismissal sparked a mini-collapse as India star Ishan Kishan and Virat Singh were also gone in quick succession before Shahbaz and Gharami took charge.
Gharami, who was fourth in last year's list of run-getters with 795 runs, was quick to dispatch anything on the legs but was also adept at finding gaps on the off-side -- one such bringing about his ninth first-class hundred.
In all he hit 25 fours and a six in his 185-ball knock while Shahbaz had nine fours and two sixes to his kitty. He faced 137 balls.
The inexperience of North East bowlers shone through and by the time Gharami was dismissed, East had recovered significantly.
Even then, Shahbaz and Anukul Roy added another 67 runs to raise visions of a 450 plus first innings total.
Kotian, Deshpande star as West bowl out North for 251
Pacer Tushar Deshpande and off-spinner Tanish Kotian headlined a fine bowling performance with four wickets apiece as West Zone bowled out North for a lowly 251 on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy match at the Centre of Excellence.
Deshpande (4/57) and Tanush Kotian (4/72) shared the spoils equally as North, who were placed comfortably at 117 for 2 at one stage, were left gasping for breath at 220 for 9 before Anshul Kamboj's audacious 60 off 52 balls with five fours and equal number of maximums took them past 250-run mark.
North also made a mini comeback of sorts as left-arm spinner Abid Mushtaq bowled a peach of a delivery to castle opener Prithvi Shaw while other opener Harvik Desai was snapped up by India's T20 specialist Arshdeep Singh. West Zone ended the day's play at 31 for 2.
In 2024-25, Kotian was summoned to Australia as a replacement of Ravichandran Ashwin, who had announced his retirement during the series. While he didn't get to play a game, Kotian with his all-round performance was in India contention and also went with India A to England in 2025.
However an indifferent 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season pushed him back in pecking order with Saransh Jain leapfrogging him to a Test cap.
On the day, Kotian opened the bowling but it was in his second spell that he got the wicket of a dogged left-hander Ayush Doseja (42), who was caught by Urvil Patel.
Towards the latter half he polished the tail while Deshpande worked up brisk pace to hurry the batters and run through the middle-order.
For North Zone, the baffling decision to drop opener Sanat Sangwan, who had scored 800 plus runs in Ranji Trophy, came back to haunt them.
The questionable selection of Yash Dhull, saw the former India U-19 skipper badly exposed as he couldn't play Kotian or Mukesh Choudhary confidently. He was finally dismissed by Shardul Thakur.
Ayush Badoni (51) was impressive till the time he stayed at the crease looking at ease against both pace and spin.
Once Badoni was dismissed, there was no resistance from other batters until Kamboj saved them from embarrassment.
Brief Scores: East Zone 1st Innings: 355/6 in 80 overs (Sudip Gharami 146, Shahbaz Ahmed 100 batting, Kumar Kushagra 55, Jotin Singh 3/55).
Brief Scores: North Zone 1st Innings: 251 in 66.5 overs (Ayush Badoni 51, Anshul Kamboj 60, Tanush Kotian 4/72, Tushar Deshpande 4/57). West Zone 1st innings: 31/2 in 10 overs (Abid Mushtaq 1/5).
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