Kishan's Masterclass Puts East Zone in Command on Day 1
On a hot, humming day in Chennai, East Zone walked off with the Duleep Trophy final firmly in their grip and South Zone searching for answers. The scoreboard at stumps told its own story: 385 for 4 in 79 overs, built on an unbeaten, commanding 111 from Ishan Kishan and a punchy 63 from Kumar Kushagra.
It hadn’t always looked this one-sided. For a while in the morning, it was chaos of the best kind.
Fire and ice at the top
East Zone’s day began with the “fire and ice” pairing of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhimanyu Easwaran, and they tore up the script Tilak Varma and his bowlers had brought to the final.
Mohammed Siraj, back in domestic colours after a lukewarm Sri Lanka Test series, opened with an inswinging yorker that nearly crashed into Vaibhav’s stumps. It should have set the tone. It didn’t.
Once they settled, the openers dismantled South Zone’s new-ball plans. Easwaran tucked Siraj neatly off his pads, then later lashed him for back-to-back boundaries through the leg side. Vaibhav, watchful early, suddenly exploded: two crisp boundaries off MD Nidheesh through the covers, then a four and a six off Siraj — a late cut past point followed by a charge down the track, drilled over mid-off.
Ten overs in, East Zone were 70 without loss, both batters striking above a run a ball. By drinks, it was 91 for 0. Siraj and Nidheesh had “failed to put any pressure” on the pair; their lengths scattered, their change-ups ineffective. The crowd, in decent numbers for a domestic final, sensed a long day for the South.
Easwaran reached the first fifty of the final, clipping Shreyas Gopal through the leg side. Vaibhav followed him towards the same mark, and at 98 for 0 in 14 overs, South Zone’s attack looked ragged.
Tilak’s chirp, Vaibhav’s cameo, and a morning salvage job
In the middle of the onslaught, there was theatre. Tilak Varma, already under scrutiny for a poor first hour as captain, tried to needle the 15-year-old Vaibhav. “Kya re vice-captain?” he was heard saying on the stump mic, prodding at the youngster’s growing authority.
Vaibhav responded with a fearless sequence against Siraj — 4, 6, 4 in one over — that will linger as one of the day’s standout passages. He raced to 44 off 37 balls, having already taken down pace and spin alike.
The breakthrough, when it came, was scruffy but vital. Left-arm seamer Chama V Milind went around the wicket, dug in a short ball, and Vaibhav, eyeing another pull into the stands, miscued. Substitute Thyagarajan held the high catch in the deep. East Zone 107 for 1. Vaibhav gone for 44, six short of a memorable fifty, but his imprint on the final already clear.
Easwaran kept marching, moving serenely past his half-century, but South Zone finally clawed back some control. The second wicket was a gift: a mix-up between Easwaran and Shikhar Mohan. A gentle tap on the off side, a stuttered call, Mohan aborting while Easwaran had already committed. Stranded halfway down, the opener had no chance. He fell for 72, and South Zone, after being battered for most of the session, just about salvaged the morning at 133 for 2.
Mohan’s rebuild and the quiet squeeze
After lunch, East Zone needed a reset. They got it from Shikhar Mohan.
Initially, the left-hander played within himself, feeling out the surface and the bowling. Siraj, still searching for rhythm, overstepped for a no-ball and then watched Mohan crack him for two boundaries in the same over. The tempo shifted again.
When the spinners came on, Mohan really went to work. He targeted Tripurana Vijay in one over, launching him straight back over his head and then threading two more fours to surge from 33 to 48. In a blink, a 15-run over had yanked East Zone out of a lull.
His half-century arrived off 60 balls, a neat single into the gap at point bringing up his fourth first-class fifty. It was measured, but never timid. By the time he moved into the 70s, he had found another gear, and South Zone’s attack looked bereft of ideas.
At the other end, Ishan Kishan was still finding his rhythm. Brought in after the early wickets, he began cautiously, but the signs were there: a pull off Milind, a whip through midwicket, then a pair of boundaries off Gopal and Milind as he advanced to 32 off 48. The partnership steadied East Zone after their wobble and carried them past 200.
Sensing the danger, South Zone’s spinners tightened the screws. Gopal and Vijay began to squeeze, overs dripping with dots as the scoring rate dipped. At 193 for 3 and then 204 for 3, the game briefly slipped into a holding pattern. East Zone were rebuilding; South Zone were clinging.
Mohan falls, Kishan takes charge
The pressure finally told — but on the wrong batter for East Zone. Milind, who had earlier removed Vaibhav, struck again. A full, straight delivery slipped through Mohan’s defence and crashed into the stumps. The opener’s 85 off 120 balls, laced with nine fours and three sixes, ended just as he looked set for a hundred.
At 241 for 4, South Zone had an opening. Tea arrived soon after with East Zone 246 for 4. Siraj’s tight spell and Mohan’s dismissal had dragged the hosts back into the contest. Kishan was 33 not out, Kumar Kushagra on 4. The next session would define the day.
It did — and it belonged entirely to Kishan.
Kishan’s milestones and the late-evening surge
After tea, the left-hander emerged with clear intent. South Zone peppered him with short balls. He treated them as invitation.
He cracked boundaries off Siraj, moved crisply into the 40s, and with a neat leg glance off the same bowler, crossed 4,000 first-class runs. The landmark came almost casually, folded into an innings that was gathering menace.
Kushagra, initially watchful, grew more assured. By the time East Zone moved past 260, the partnership had settled into a rhythm: Kishan the aggressor, Kushagra the foil.
Kishan’s half-century arrived with a pull off Gopal to deep midwicket — 50 from 72 balls, the third batter of the day to reach the mark. Unlike the others, he was nowhere near done. The pair pushed East Zone to 300 for 4 in 67 overs, completing a superb recovery from 88 for 3. South Zone managed to “keep things relatively quiet” for stretches, but the scoreboard kept grinding them down.
Then came the real acceleration.
Across the 69th and 70th overs, Kishan and Kushagra tore into the attack, plundering 26 runs. Kushagra mixed a four and a six, Kishan added another boundary, and South Zone’s lines disintegrated again. By 71 overs, East Zone were 331 for 4; Kishan on 72 off 98, Kushagra 48 off 64, and the final slipping away from Tilak’s men.
Kishan inched towards his hundred with a brief scare — a call for the physio and a short stoppage — but he stayed put, unfazed. A crisp pull for four off Gopal took him into the 90s, then to 96. He moved to 99, paused, and then did what he does best: finished in style.
A boundary took him to his 10th first-class century, three figures reached with authority rather than relief. It capped an innings that had started as a stabilising act and turned into a statement.
He didn’t stop there. Kishan pressed on to an unbeaten 111 off 135 balls by stumps, having dominated the short ball and dictated the tempo of the evening. Kushagra, equally impressive in his own right, closed on 63 not out, his aggression ensuring South Zone never settled into a defensive groove.
South Zone under the pump, final finely poised
By the close, East Zone’s 385 for 4 felt like more than just a big first-innings total. It was a message. They had been 88 for 3 at one stage; they finished with four batters past fifty, one of them a centurion, and six wickets still in the shed.
Siraj, billed as the spearhead, struggled for consistency and rhythm. Milind’s double strike offered some respite, and the spinners occasionally slowed the flow, but across three sessions, South Zone never truly wrested control.
The subplot between Vaibhav and Tilak, the early assault on Siraj, Mohan’s muscular 85, Kishan’s landmark-laden hundred, Kushagra’s lively support — all of it fed into a day that belonged, almost entirely, to East Zone.
They have the runs, they have the momentum, and they know spin will come into play deeper into the match. South Zone, with a powerful batting line-up of their own, will have to respond hard and fast.
On a surface expected to deteriorate, can they?
