Duleep Trophy: East keep North in check

Bengaluru: Senior pacer Mohammed Shami was impressive without being incisive but young left-arm spinner Manishi’s strikes helped East Zone curb North Zone to 308 for six on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals here on Thursday.

Middle-order batter Ayush Badoni made a stylish 63 off 60 balls on a rather smooth pitch, but other North batters’ would rue their failure to kick on after getting solid starts after East bowled by choice.

But the focus was firmly on Shami, who was playing in his first First-Class game since November 2024. He appeared a bit out of touch in his first two spells, as the archetypal sharpness was conspicuous by its absence, possibly because he was trying to tune his body to the rigours of long-form cricket.

He beat the bat’s outside edge a couple of times but the North openers — skipper Ankit Kumar and Shubham Khajuria — negotiated the spell without much difficulty.

Shami’s first spell of the day read 5-2-10-0 and the second was 3-0-10-0, both were bowled in the morning session, but he was largely operating in lower gears. agencies