On a sticky, energy-sapping Chennai day, East Zone didn’t just win the toss. They seized the final.
By stumps, the scoreboard read 385 for 4 in 79 overs. The number that really mattered, though, sat next to Ishan Kishan’s name: 111 not out from 135 balls, his 10th first-class hundred, an innings that turned a promising start into near-total control.
South Zone walked off looking like a side that had spent all day chasing shadows.
Openers light the fuse
The tone was set early. Kishan, having opted to bat, watched from the dressing room as his openers tore into a South attack that never quite found its range.
Mohammed Siraj, fresh from a lukewarm Test series in Sri Lanka, ran in hard but was repeatedly punished. Abhimanyu Easwaran and 15-year-old vice-captain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi were ruthless on anything loose. By the ninth over, East Zone were 61 without loss; Siraj had already been whipped for back-to-back boundaries through the leg side by Easwaran.
At 10 overs, the run rate sat at seven an over. Easwaran had just stepped down to Tripurana Vijay and launched him over long-on, the ball lost for five minutes. East Zone 70 for 0, both batters striking above a run a ball. South Zone’s plan with pace was in tatters.
The crowd, in good numbers for a domestic final, sensed a mismatch.
Vaibhav’s fearless cameo, Easwaran’s control
Sooryavanshi began watchfully, then flipped a switch. Two crisp boundaries through cover off MD Nidheesh. A late cut and a charge down the track against Siraj for four and six. He even went after India’s spearhead with a fearless sequence of 4, 6, 4 in one over, a teenager taking on a national-team quick without a flicker of intimidation.
There was needle too. “Kya re vice-captain?” Tilak Varma chirped on the stump mic, trying to rattle him. It only added spice to a stand that raced past fifty and then seventy.
Easwaran, at the other end, was ice to Vaibhav’s fire. Compact, balanced, he eased his way to the first fifty of the final, reaching the landmark off Shreyas Gopal with a couple through the leg side. East Zone 98 for 0 in 14 overs; South Zone’s new-ball bowlers had “failed to exact any pressure at all”, their lengths all over the place.
It took something slightly reckless to break the stand. On 44 off 37, Sooryavanshi came down to a short ball from left-armer Chama V Milind, looking to pull him into the stands. The connection was poor, the catch at deep square taken by substitute Thyagarajan. East Zone 107 for 1, the opening stand broken, but the damage already significant.
South claw back… briefly
Easwaran kept ticking. He moved serenely into the seventies, and with the ball still doing just enough, his judgement of length stood out. South Zone needed a slice of fortune to remove him, and they got it.
A tap into the off side, a stuttering call for a single, a change of mind. Easwaran, halfway down, stranded. Run out for 72, a mix-up with Shikhar Mohan handing South Zone their second wicket and a lifeline in the morning session. East Zone 133 for 2, suddenly checked after a rampant start.
When play resumed after lunch at that same score, Siraj had the ball in hand and South Zone had a window. For a while, they held it open. The ball nipped, the odd delivery leapt, and the scoring rate dipped. East Zone’s early blaze slowed to a steady burn.
Mohan digs in, then explodes
Into that pressure walked S Mohan. He began quietly, content to let the ball come, while the bowlers hunted a third wicket. Then he saw enough.
Siraj overstepped, Mohan cashed in with two crisp boundaries. Against Tripurana Vijay, he went further: a straight hit over the bowler’s head, then two more boundaries to race from 33 to 48 in a single over. The momentum swung again.
A neat single to point brought up his fifty from 60 balls, his fourth in first-class cricket. The knock grew in authority. By the time he decided patience really was overrated and launched Gopal for back-to-back sixes — one over wide long-on, the next over long-off — Mohan had 79 off 105 and South Zone’s spinners were under serious pressure.
He moved to 81, then 85 with nine fours and three sixes in all, before Milind finally ended his resistance, bowling him for 85 off 120. A crucial fourth-wicket stand broken at 241, but East Zone’s platform now solid.
Kishan takes charge
If Mohan had dragged East Zone out of their early wobble, Kishan turned recovery into dominance.
He started in second gear, 22 off 42 as he settled, then began to find his range. A pull off Milind, a whip off Gopal through midwicket, the tempo rising. By tea he was 33 not out, East Zone 246 for 4, South Zone just about satisfied after Mohan’s dismissal and a tight spell from Siraj.
The break did nothing to blunt Kishan’s intent.
After tea, he unfurled a series of authoritative strokes. A couple of boundaries off Siraj signalled his mood. He moved past 4,000 first-class runs with a neat leg glance off the same bowler, reaching 48 off 69 and then raising his fifty with a pull into the deep midwicket region off Gopal — 50 from 72 balls, the third half-century of the innings.
By then, East Zone had surged to 284 for 4. South Zone’s short-ball ploy was being handled with almost casual assurance.
Kushagra joins the party
At the other end, Kumar Kushagra played the perfect foil, then something more. Initially steady, he grew increasingly fluent as Kishan’s aggression forced the field back and the bowlers to search for answers.
Once the pair settled, the game’s tempo changed again. Between the 69th and 70th overs, they plundered 26 runs. Kishan moved to 72 off 98, Kushagra to 48 off 64, mixing clean hitting with sharp running. South Zone were “under the pump”, their plans fraying under the weight of relentless scoring.
Kishan’s progress from fifty to hundred had a touch of inevitability about it. He moved into the nineties with a crisp pull off Gopal, even called for the physio at 96, but never looked like giving it away. On 99, he found the fence to bring up his 10th first-class century, a boundary that capped a superb, tempo-setting innings.
From there, he was in complete command. The short ball, which South Zone had persisted with, kept disappearing. Kushagra, meanwhile, raised his own half-century and then pushed on to 63, an aggressive, busy knock that made sure East Zone never let the day drift.
South Zone out of answers
By the time the umpires called stumps, the numbers told a brutal story. From 88 for 3, East Zone had roared to 385 for 4. Kishan was unbeaten on 111, Kushagra on 63. The earlier contributions from Easwaran (72), Mohan (85) and Sooryavanshi (44) underpinned a batting card with depth and intent.
South Zone’s bowlers had their moments — Milind’s two key strikes, Siraj’s tighter post-tea spell, the spinners’ brief squeeze before Mohan’s assault — but they never managed to sustain pressure long enough. The over-rate slipped too, earning them a first official warning for time-wasting.
Chennai last hosted a Duleep Trophy final in 2012-13, when East Zone won on first-innings lead. On this evidence, history might be nudging the same way again.
South Zone still have time, and a strong batting lineup of their own. But with spin expected to dominate on days four and five, and East Zone already sitting on a commanding first-innings total, the question is no longer whether Kishan’s side are on top.
It’s how South Zone plan to wrest the final back from a captain who has already stamped his name all over Day 1.
