Senior pacer Mohammed Shami (1-55 off 17 overs) was impressive without being incisive but young left-arm spinner Manishi’s strikes helped East Zone curb North Zone to 308-6 on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-finals here on Thursday.
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 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.
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