East Zone clinch Duleep Trophy after 13 years

Chennai: East Zone translated their complete dominance over the last 12 sessions into a Duleep Trophy victory after 13 years, overwhelming South Zone on the basis of a massive first innings lead on the fifth and final day of the final here on Thursday, September 10.

East Zone sauntered to 388 for seven in their second innings, swelling the overall lead to 760 runs even as the match ended in a draw.

Mohammad Kounian Quraishi joined the list of century-makers in this match with an unbeaten 116, his maiden three-figure mark in two-match-old first-class career.

Quraishi, who added 150 runs with Anukul Roy (64) for the seventh wicket stand, reached the milestone in 179 balls with a brace off left-arm pacer CV Milind.

But way before the teams shook hands at 2.10 pm signalling a draw, East had wrested the trophy after posting a mammoth 708 runs in their first innings, which helped them construct a 372-run lead.

East’s second innings was a mere continuation of their show of power in the match.

Starting the day from 212 for five, the Ishan Kishan-led side, as it happened in the first innings, was seldom troubled by direction-less South bowlers.

Seasoned Mohammed Siraj bounded in for a while, showing intensity and pace. While it was satisfactory from a personal point of view, the effort remained futile otherwise.

The lack of support for Siraj and a toothless batting effort also reflected the flawed selection as far as South squad is concerned.

The South management chose to ignore in-form and proven players such as Karun Nair, Mayank Agarwal and Sai Kishore and the replacements never really could step up.

But plenty of East Zone players did that.

Skipper Kishan made a stunning 270 in the first innings to underline his red-ball readiness while veteran Mohammed Shami, who was playing in his 100th first-class match, put to shame some younger names with a spirited effort.

Kumar Kushagra scored his sixth first-class hundred while his Jharkhand team-mate Shikhar Mohan made a fifty filled with class and poise.

Above all, Kishan also showed impressive tactical awareness while leading East.

Once the team put on board a massive total, Kishan was clear in his primary objective — take 10 South wickets and get a first innings lead.

“I think when you are the captain of the team, the first thing is situational awareness. We batted for roughly two days, right? Now, as a unit, we know this is essentially a first-innings shootout.

“So, our primary task was to take those first 10 wickets and gain that lead. If we have an innings lead (good enough to impose follow-on), why would I want to step back out in the blazing heat,” Kishan said.

His words reflected the direct conflict between the intention of stretching domestic knockout matches into five days to procure results and teams gunning only for a first innings lead to bag the title.

But for him and East, now, it’s time to celebrate a long-awaited success rather than dwelling into such technical matters.

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