Duleep Trophy: Shorey’s ton shores up North on Day 1

Bengaluru, June 28

Dhruv Shorey carried his sublime form from the last Ranji Trophy season, scoring a composed 135 to take North Zone to 306/6 on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy quarterfinal against North East Zone here today. Nishant Sindhu also contributed with an unbeaten 76.

New Delhi’s Shorey had scored 859 runs, with three hundreds, in seven matches in the Ranji season at an astounding average of 95.44.

Shorey took his time to settle down as the pitch offered some help to the pacers. Shorey built partnerships with opening partner Prashant Chopra (32) and Prabhsimran Singh (31). He hit 22 fours in his 211-ball innings before falling to left-arm spinner Kishan Singha.

Singha trapped captain Jayant Yadav lbw two balls later to reduce North Zone to 242/6. The team needed a rescue act and it came from Nishant and Pulkit Narang.

Brief scores: North Zone: 306/6 (Shorey 135, Sindhu 76*; Singha 2/48) vs North East Zone; Central Zone: 182 (Rinku 38; Murasingh 5/42, Shahbaz 2/42) vs East Zone: 32/2 (Avesh 2/13).