Mohammed Shami made an impressive return to domestic cricket, but wasn't able to pick up too many wickets on the first day as North Zone finished on 308/6. Ayush Badoni played a gritty knock of 63 runs while multiple other North Zone batters played impactful cameos as they capped off the day having the upper hand.
Shami, who was playing his first match in first-class cricket since November 2024, bowled 17 overs during the day and recorded economical figures of 1/55. Though he wasn't able to get too many wickets, the 34-year-old did cause a lot of problems for the opposing batters, who found it quite hard to score runs against him.
Left-arm spinner Manishi was the top performer for the East Zone on Day 1 as he picked up three massive wickets. He was the one who broke the 49-run opening stand between Shubham Khajuria and skipper Ankit Kumar by dismissing the latter for 30 runs. He would soon get the wicket of Khajuria as well before the duo of Yash Dhull and Ayush Badoni formed a strong partnership.
The duo smacked the opposing bowlers all around BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru and ended up forming a valiant stand of 67 runs. However, it was Manishi who once again came to East Zone's aid and got the massive wicket of Dhull for 39 runs.Things didn't get much better for the Riyan Parag-led side as next batter Nishant Sindhu also ended up playing a valiant inning.
Badoni eventually went on to complete his half-century, but failed to convert it into a much bigger score and was dismissed for 63 by Mukhtar Hussain. Though North Zone kept on forming decent stands, none of their partnerships were able to cross the 100-run mark and Sindhu would be the fifth person to depart with Suraj Jaiswal being the bowler to clinch his wicket for 47 runs.
Shami got his hard-earned wicket
Kanhaiya Wadhawan and Sahil Lotra formed another decent stand of 52, but once again the East Zone would manage to break it and this time it was Shami, who finally managed to get his first wicket of the match after having worked hard for almost the entire day. The 34-year-old sent Lotra back to the dugout for 19 runs, restricting North Zone to 272/6 after 69.4 overs.
The opening day would draw to a close after close to six overs more and North Zone would manage to post a decent total of 308/6 on the board. The duo of Wadhawan (42*) and Mayank Dagar (28*) will resume their innings as the second day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final commences in Bengaluru.