Mohammed Shami had a dream 100th First Class game, ending up with a winner’s medal around his neck, as East Zone clinched the Duleep Trophy here on Thursday.

The India pacer was operating close to his best (16-5-42-2) with both the new and old ball, keeping the South Zone batters on tenterhooks. “As far as satisfaction goes, achieving this in my 100th match — and winning the Duleep Trophy — is special. East Zone has won the trophy after a very long time. The last time we won back-to-back titles, I was part of one of those squads,” said Shami.

Though he took only two wickets, Shami provided breakthroughs at crucial junctures, removing key batters Shaik Rasheed and R. Smaran. He set them up nicely before delivering the final blow.

“Test (long-format) cricket is entirely a game of setups. If the top-order batters are set, you cannot get them out without a plan. Wickets don’t just happen out of nowhere, especially on tracks like this. The plan was to keep taking the ball away from him (Rasheed), build that expectation, and bring one back in sharply to trap him. That’s precisely how it unfolded,” Shami explained.

At 36, the Bengal fast bowler is probably in the final phase of his career, and he hasn’t donned the National cap since March 2025 (ICC Champions Trophy). It is unclear if the selectors see a role for him looking at the future.

When asked what keeps him motivated to grind it out, he said, “There are plenty of reasons. You can draw positivity from this ground or any other ground you step on to. At this level, if you aren’t self-motivated, your approach is wrong. No matter what stage you’re playing at, your eyes must always be set on the next level.”

Skipper Tilak Varma has been the standout player for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy this year.

The Hyderabad batter was instrumental in taking the team to the final, leading from the front with unbeaten knocks of 116 and 51 in the semifinal against North.

In the summit clash, Tilak yet again stood tall, scoring a valiant 99 against East Zone, even if he couldn’t help his team avoid conceding a huge lead.

“It’s an important knock, but at the same time I was only focused on what the team needed. I could have taken more chances before, but the plan was simply to take it session by session,” said Tilak. 

“If some other batter stayed with me, I was confident we [could] have batted through to the end of the day, [and] take it session-by-session till tomorrow and push for a draw. Unfortunately, we lost wickets, and the result went in their favour,” he added.

“A hundred would have been a nice reward for the hard yards I put in the heat, but individual milestones don’t matter as much as the result.”

Though the 23-year-old has quickly been elevated as vice-captain of the T20I side, he reiterated that Test cricket is his ultimate goal.

“I always say to everyone that I want to play red-ball cricket for India. That’s my biggest goal because I really love playing red-ball cricket. As a kid, I thought I’d play Test cricket first and then only white-ball cricket. I’m really keen to play red-ball cricket, and let’s see how it goes,” said Tilak.

East Zone pacer Mukesh Kumar felt that there was enough on the surface for the quicks to keep the batters honest, provided they had the right tactics.

Despite bowling on a fresh MAC Stadium pitch on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy final, the South Zone fast bowlers were inconsistent and resorted to short-pitched stuff without much success.

In contrast, Mukesh and Mohammed Shami attacked the stumps and scalped four of the six wickets to fall on day three.

“I didn’t pitch it too full here. If I had bowled full, it would have invited cover drives and similar shots. So, pulling the length back slightly to back-of-a-length on this red soil [was important]. If you hit the deck hard and put effort into it, the ball kicks. We worked on that,” said Mukesh.

The Bengal speedster also stressed the need to maintain the ball, especially on red-soil pitches where it could get scuffed easily.

“Speaking for myself, the harder I pound the deck and hit the seam, the more the ball will kick, regardless of the wicket. The other part is working on the ball — applying sweat repeatedly, polishing it, and preparing it for reverse swing. We worked on that, and it gave us movement,” he added.

On his plans for Devdutt Padikkal, Mukesh explained: “It was to bowl stump-to-stump because we knew he was coming after scoring two centuries in Sri Lanka. On wickets like this, if you offer width to batters, runs will leak. Our plan as fast bowlers was to stay as consistent as possible and bowl dot balls, letting them take the risks. They would try to force the pace and get out because they need to score runs.”

A disciplined bowling performance and the comfort of a huge first-innings total ensured East Zone tightened its stranglehold over South Zone on day three of the Duleep Trophy final at the MAC Stadium here.

Chasing 709, South needed more than a couple of batters to produce special knocks. Unfortunately, aside from Devdutt Padikkal (62, 104b, 4×4), none of the others showed much inclination to keep the contest alive.

In the final session, skipper Tilak Varma offered some resistance, remaining unbeaten on 56 (133b, 5×4), but it was akin to trying to keep a sinking boat afloat as his side finished on 242 for six, still 466 runs in arrears.

For East, Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar took two wickets each. The former showed that he can still make the ball talk through both conventional and reverse swing with short yet incisive spells.

Shami of East Zone signing autograph for fans during the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone.
| Photo Credit:
R. RAGU

After losing opener Ricky Bhui early — caught down the leg-side off Mukesh Kumar — N. Jagadeesan and Padikkal added 60 runs for the second wicket.

The TN ’keeper-batter, though, threw away his start, slicing an innocuous wide delivery from left-arm spinner Shikhar Mohan to backward point.

Padikkal, fresh from twin centuries in the recently concluded Test series in Sri Lanka, was at his fluent best, cruising to a half-century. The southpaw looked set for another big one, until he flicked a leg-side half-volley from Mukesh down the square-leg fielder’s throat, much to his disbelief.

Padikkal could not convert his start into a big one.
| Photo Credit:
R. RAGU

Shami, in his second spell, attacked the stumps relentlessly and reaped the rewards through his trademark delivery that seamed off the pitch and trapped Shaik Rasheed plumb in front.

The 36-year-old then produced another peach from around the wicket that nipped away just enough to have R. Smaran caught behind, leaving South tottering at 174 for five.

Tilak and Shreyas Gopal then added 66 for the sixth wicket before the latter was dismissed in the final over of the day. With East skipper Ishan Kishan already hinting that his team was not inclined to enforce the follow-on, the next two days could well be about going through the formalities before the coronation.

East players celebrate taking a South Zone wicket.
| Photo Credit:
R. RAGU

The scores: East Zone — 1st innings: 708 in 163 overs.

South Zone — 1st innings: Ricky Bhui c Kushagra b Mukesh 1, N. Jagadeesan c Abhimanyu b Shikhar 32, Devdutt Padikkal c sub (Denish) b Mukesh 62, Shaik Rasheed lbw b Shami 27, Tilak Varma (batting) 56, R. Smaran c Kushagra b Shami 23, Shreyas Gopal c & b Quraishi 26, C.V. Milind (batting) 2; Extras (b-8, nb-3, w-2): 13; Total (for six wkts. in 80 overs): 242.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-70, 3-126, 4-129, 5-174, 6-240.

East Zone bowling: Shami 11-4-17-2, Mukesh 12-1-36-2, Quraishi 31-7-77-1, Abhijit 8-0-34-0, Shikhar 13-0-52-1, Sooryavanshi 4-0-10-0, Kishan 1-0-8-0.

When Mohammed Shami walks onto the MAC Stadium turf on Sunday for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone, it will be a momentous occasion for the 36-year-old, who will be featuring in his 100th First Class match.

As he aims to return to the national team, Shami has been putting in the hard yards in domestic cricket. Last year, the pacer took 37 wickets in the Ranji Trophy from seven matches as Bengal narrowly missed out on making the summit clash.

This season, in two Duleep outings so far, the veteran speedster has bowled with pace and verve, prompting East Zone skipper Ishan Kishan to praise him lavishly.

“He has been picking up wickets, giving all his energy. He is coming in and asking me for those extra overs to get the wickets.

“It is hard when you are not regularly playing for the Indian team and to have that kind of motivation for domestic games. But I see that hunger in him.

“You can see when he is trying to help me — he comes and gives options about what can be done,” Kishan added.

At a time when Jasprit Bumrah is battling injuries and Mohammed Siraj is not looking at his sharpest, another good run in domestic cricket could get Shami back in the reckoning.

India’s next Test tour is to New Zealand, where conditions will be seamer-friendly. Shami can also be a great asset in the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, a tournament where he boasts of a stellar record — 55 wickets at a world-leading average of 13.52.

In the last Duleep game against Central Zone in Bengaluru, the way Shami set up Yash Rathod — testing the batter outside the off-stump, softening him up with a few bouncers before nipping one away to get him caught behind — showed a bowler still at the top of his game.

During that fixture, National selector Pragyan Ojha had a long discussion with the pacer from Amroha. Opening of a fresh chapter in Shami’s international career? Time will tell.

 Duleep Trophy was once an important pit stop in a cricketer’s journey towards the Indian National team. But now, with the mushrooming of glitzy and faster highways to success like the IPL and India-A, the inter-zonal competition has slid down the importance chart.

It is not that the Duleep Trophy is irrelevant; a good performance against the best Ranji Trophy players from the previous season still carries significant value. But it is just one more data point in a cricketer’s graph and not the clincher it once was.

Yet, when the 2026-27 edition starts on Sunday at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here, there will be sufficient interest. As the tournament heralds the beginning of the domestic cricket calendar, players’ first moves will be as important as chess openings.

In the inaugural round, the competitive match – at least on paper – is expected to be the North Zone-West Zone encounter. But Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s presence on the adjacent ground, turning out for East versus the North East, will attract enough eyeballs.

The cherubic 15-year-old has a proven T20 game, but the red ball will present twin tests. There are batting numbers to better, for he averages 17.25 from eight First Class matches. There is the vice-captaincy burden to carry, for he is Ishan Kishan’s deputy.

East also has veteran Mohammed Shami, who last played for India more than 17 months ago. He picked up 37 wickets in Bengal’s dash to the Ranji semis in 2025-26, only for the selectors to look the other way. Can he turn their heads this time around?

North will be led by Jammu & Kashmir’s Kanhaiya Wadhawan, and has six of his Statemates, a hat-tip to J & K’s maiden Ranji triumph earlier this year. Ruturaj Gaikwad will marshal West Zone’s resources, with Mumbai batter Prithvi Shaw in the mix.

Defending champion Central and runner-up South have been given byes to the semifinals. The next four days will decide who they will face.

Australia pace great Glenn McGrath felt that India’s white-ball fast-bowling attack was in the midst of a natural transition, backing Prasidh Krishna to emerge as a key figure at a time when Jasprit Bumrah is managing his workload and Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj are absent.

“It’s always going to be tough to just pick up from where you left off. You’ve got Bumrah, who’s a class bowler. Shami is world class as well. Siraj has been around for a long time and is very experienced. They bowl incredibly well, so you can’t just expect to pick up straight from where you left off,” McGrath said at the MRF Pace Foundation here on Monday.

The 56-year-old, however, believed that India’s next-gen pacers were making encouraging progress. “I think they’ve been doing okay. I’m a big fan of Prasidh as well. It’s always a big ask to fill the shoes of Shami and Bumrah, so it’s always going to be a transitional period.”

McGrath reserved special praise for Prasidh, saying that the seamer had matured a lot since he first saw him. “From seeing him when he was here (MRF Pace Foundation) to watching him play IPL cricket, he just seemed to mature — his pace and just the way he was bowling, the way he held himself.

“He’s tall, bowls good areas, gets that bounce and pace. It’s the whole package, really. He was very much an enforcer when he bowled — just the way he went through the crease, the pace he was bowling at, the bounce, and the areas. Occasionally, he was a little bit short, but apart from that, he impressed me. He’s really developed and put his potential into action,” the former fast bowler said.

Asked why Prasidh tends to bowl too short at times, McGrath said that it could stem from his role as an enforcer. “I think his job is to be the enforcer and to really unsettle batters. It worked for him a bit in the IPL. Maybe, he just went with it”.

The road to the IPL 2026 playoffs may seem distant for Lucknow Super Giants, which sits at the bottom of the table.

However, bowling coach Bharat Arun believes all is not lost yet. “There is light at the end of the tunnel. For us, there’s no other way. Every game is a knockout for us right from here,” Arun said.