Shami toils hard on red-ball return; East keep North in check at 308/6

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, trying to assess the conditions and his own body.

But there was a marked difference in his third spell right after lunch (4-2-9-0) as a familiar Shami surfaced — quick and testing the batters’ judgement outside the off-stump.

The occasional in-dippers too appeared as Badoni and Nishant Sindhu copped a couple of blows on their pads.

The 34-year-old could have had his first wicket of the day a bit earlier in the fourth spell (5-0-26-1), but Kumar Kushagra dropped Kanhaiya Wadhawan (37) at long-on on 27.

But Shami soon found success as he had Sahil Lotra caught behind off a loose waft outside the off-stump, and that seemed to settle down the veteran.

Shami might not have been threatening every ball as he does when on top of his game and fitness, but the sum total of 17 overs he bowled (1/55) on the day would be very pleasing for him.

He shifted through spells of varying intensity without much discomfort, something that might prompt him to go even harder in the days to come.

It may be recalled that Shami could not board the flight to England for the recent Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy because of his perceived inability to handle long spells in five-day cricket.

But this day might have offered him some bright signs, and for the selectors whenever they sit down to select the squad for the home Test series against the West Indies.

Badoni impressive

But a shard of credit too should be given to Badoni for sticking to his aggressive game, and his drives on the up were a sight for sore eyes.

Badoni, who had a very good outing in the Delhi Premier League recently, adapted to the demands of the red ball with consummate ease.

But he fell much against the run of play, getting caught down the leg side while attempting a pull off pacer Mukhtar Hussain.

However, it was a rather just reflection of the day when North batters like Khajuria (26), Ankit (30), Yash Dhull (39) and Nishant (47) could not convert their starts despite scoring at a fair clip.

Worry for Mukesh

India pacer Mukesh Kumar had a moment of worry as he had to spend nine overs out of the field to tend to his hamstring between first and second sessions.

But Mukesh returned to the field in the middle session to ease East’s concern, whose bowlers leaked plenty of runs in the first phase as North made 139 in 34 overs despite losing three wickets.

All those three wickets were taken by 21-year-old Manishi from Jamshedpur, who was accurate enough to take advantage of batters’ false shots.