India’s new domestic season began on 28 June (Wednesday) with the Duleep Trophy, a multi-day tournament. The Central Zone took on the East Zone, while the North and North-North-East Zone faced off in two separate quarter-finals as some of the top players shone for their respective teams. Rinku Singh, the star player of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier LeagueIPL), highest score for Central Zone in a low-scoring innings.
The left-handed batsman scored 38 runs batting at number five and hit six fours during his stay in the middle. He was expected to score big and the youngster showed his talent but could not go past the 38-run mark thanks to Shahbaz Ahmed who dismissed him. The latter played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL and impressed with two wickets in 17 overs in his first red-ball outing of the season.
Central Zone could only manage 182 runs in their first innings and collapsed. However, they struck back with the ball before the end of the day’s play as Avesh Khan pinned the East Zone openers in front of the stumps twice with the new ball.
In the second quarter-final, Dhruv Shorey was the star player for North Zone, scoring 135 opening the innings. He hit 22 fours during his innings and was dismissed only in the last session of the innings. Apart from them, Nishant Sindhu, who was a part of Chennai Super Kings’ title win in IPL 2023, also shone with the bat as he scored an unbeaten 76 before the end of the day’s play. North Zone ended the day’s play at 306/6 after 87 overs and would look to add more runs on the second morning.