Dhruv Shorey, Nishant Sindhu shine as North Zone edge ahead on Day 1

North East Zone won the toss on an overcast first day and managed to strike six times against a far stronger opposition — on paper, at least — in the form of the Jayant Yadav-led North Zone, but, despite that, it was North Zone who ended the day as the happier of the two sides as a ton from opener Dhruv Shorey (135) and an unbeaten 76 from teenager Nishant Sindhu helped Yadav’s side breach the 300-run mark and end Day 1 on 306/6.

Despite being inserted into bat, the day began well for North Zone as Shorey and Himachal Pradesh’s Prashant Chopra added 80 runs for the first wicket and were going at close to 4 an over. At one point, it looked like the day was destined to be a long one for the inexperienced North East Zone attack, which had no specialist bowlers who had 30 or more first-class matches under their belt.

But Pheiroijam Jotin Singh managed to go through the defence of Chopra, post which the bowling side dominated proceedings, taking 4 wickets in the next 20 overs. At 162/4, the day was right in the balance.

But that was when Shorey and Sindhu got together, and the pair deflated any hopes of a North East storm, adding 80 runs for the fifth wicket. It was during this stand that Shorey brought up his 11th first class ton. 

At 242/4, things could have gone really bad for North East but Rongsen Jonathan’s side kept fighting, and went bang bang to dismiss Shorey and skipper Yadav in the span of three balls. Suddenly, with the score reading 242/6, North East Zone were back on top again.

One set batter perished, but the other, Sindhu, kept piling the runs and posted his sixth 50+ score in first-class cricket. He was well supported by Services’ Pulkit Narang, who occupied the crease for more than an hour, and added 23 valuable unbeaten runs of his own. Together the pair added 64 unbroken runs to take North Zone to 306/6 at the end of Day 1.

Despite not capitalizing on openings, the North East Zone bowlers put up a very solid performance, with left-arm spinner L Kishan Singha and Pheiroijam Jotin both taking 2-wicket hauls.