Follow UsAvesh Khan got rid of East Zone openers in the final hour of day one of the 2023 Duleep Trophy to give Central Zone some momentum after they were bundled out for just 182 in 71.4 overs at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur.
Avesh’s stocks might have fallen in white-ball cricket but the 26-year-old has been on the selectors’ radar in the red-ball format. The right-arm paceman dismissed both Abhimanyu Easwaran (nought) and Shantanu Mishra (6) lbw and reduced East Zone to 19/2.
Bengal’s Sudip Kumar Gharami (19*) and nightwatchman Shahbaz Nadeem (6*) remained unbeaten when the stumps were drawn on day one, with East Zone scoring 32/2 in 12 overs. They still trail by 150 runs.
Earlier, Manisankar Murasingh picked 5/42 and gave East Zone the advantage after Central Zone won the toss and opted to bat first. The right-arm seamer from Tripura dismissed Vivek Singh (21), Upendra Yadav (25), Saransh Jain (nought), Saurabh Kumar (4) and Avesh (10).
Both Central Zone openers Mantri and Vivek got past the 20-run mark but couldn’t convert their starts into something substantial. Bengal’s left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed also chipped in with two crucial wickets of Shubham Sharma and Rinku Singh.
Rinku, who averages close to 60 in first-class cricket and has been the backbone of Uttar Pradesh’s batting line-up, top-scored for Central Zone with 38. The left-hander put on 61 runs with wicketkeeper-batter Upendra for the fifth wicket.
However, once the latter perished, Central Zone lost their last six wickets for 35 runs.