ALL eyes were on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi but it was some of the more established faces who stole the show on Day 1 of the Duleep Trophy at the BCCI's CoE in Bengaluru on Sunday.
The 15-year-old southpaw, playing in only his ninth first-class game, was dismissed for eight (two boundaries his only scoring shots) but it didn't matter as Shahbaz Ahmed and Sudip Gharami rescued East Zone with fighting centuries. When the pair joined hands, the side were perilously placed at 5/138 inside the first 30 overs.
However, they counter-punched with alacrity in a 150-run stand sandwiched by tea. By the time Gharami was caught in front by Pheiroijam Jotin, they had rattled along to 288. At close of play, they were 6/355 with Ahmed on an unbeaten 100 off just 137 deliveries.
Jotin may only be 20 but he has already sparkled at the first-class level for Manipur having picked up 75 wickets in just 21 matches. At CoE's Ground-2, Jotin's three wickets was the stand out for North East Zone.
On the adjacent Ground-1 on a very pleasant day, it was Tanush Kotian who served the India selectors a reminder about his talents with the ball. Kotian, who was actually called up to the squad when the Indian side were in Australia, has seen a few spinners leapfrog him over the last 18 months. One of those spinners, Manav Suthar, made their India debut in the opening Test against Sri Lanka. Kotian also saw Saransh Jain, who had sparkled in the Duleep Trophy last year, getting his maiden India cap from Ravindra Jadeja in Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Perhaps spurred on by those images, the 27-year-old kept plugging away all morning and afternoon to return with figures of 4/72 from 20.5 overs (he opened the bowling for West Zone) against North Zone. North, heavily represented by Jammu & Kashmir's Ranji title-winning side from last season (five for those asking), couldn't build any partnership outside of Ayush Badoni's alliance with Ayush Doseja for the third wicket. But once Badoni was out for 51, they lost wickets throughout the afternoon session as Kotian and Tushar Deshpande, another bowler who picked up four wickets, got through the spine of opposition batting line-up. Anshul Kamboj came up with a surprise 50, which was laced with five fours and as many sixes before North Zone were dismissed for 251.
In response, though, West had lost both Prithvi Shaw as well as Harvik Desai for just 31.
Brief scores: North Zone 251 in 66.5 ovs (Badoni 51, Kamboj 60) vs West Zone 31/2 in 10 ovs; East Zone 355/6 in 80 ovs (Kushagra 55, Gharami 146, Ahmed 100 n.o, Choudhary 2/64, Jotin 3/53) vs North East Zone.