5.02pm And that's stumps on day one. It's a day that belonged to East Zone completely, especially capped by the wicketless session, the only one today in which they scored at over five an over (5.56). The scorecard will certainly tell you the top contributors but it's worth mentioning South Zone bowled just 79 overs today despite the half-hour extension. Otherwise it was East Zone all the way from the time the toss went their way. South Zone were also quite defensive from the start with a spread out field which only helped Sooryavanshi and Easwaran race to a century opening stand. Even when the runs were flowing, the South Zone quicks didn't try to trouble Sooryavanshi with anything short before Milind's short ball eventually saw him miscue one. Easwaran looked as solid and confident as he ever has in his 13-year career, that too on his 31st birthday, but he was unfortunately sold down the river by Shikhar Mohan on 72 for a run out. Mohan at least redeemed himself with a more patient knock of 85 before he chopped one against Milind's short-ball plan before the captain Ishan Kishan and No. 6 Kumar Kushagra absolutely laid into the South attack. Kishan was determined, batted with purpose and punished any short ball that came his way for his century and the highlights for Kushagra were the three massive sixes he smacked off Vijay with such authority over the wide long-on boundary. South Zone have lots to think about; were they too defensive, why did they bowl so many loose balls, what's going wrong with Siraj who was so expensive and went over 135kmh only once or twice, what's wrong with their over rate which forced them to bowl spin from both ends for a long phase before stumps? Let's hope they came back stronger on Monday morning because they also have to bat last on a pitch that is already seeing some turn and the makings of low bounce. We'll be back tomorrow morning, until then it's goodbye and good luck from me, Vishal Dikshit, and Shashank. Adios!

Ram : "What people miss is that Sooryavanshi has made big runs at every level despite his high risk approach"