Duleep Trophy: Deshpande, Kotian star as West bowl out North for 251

Tushar Deshpande. Pic/Satej Shinde; (right) Tanush Kotian. Pic/Atul Kamble

Pacer Tushar Deshpande and off-spinner Tanush Kotian headlined a fine bowling performance with four wickets apiece as West Zone bowled out North for a lowly 251 on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy match at the Centre of Excellence.

Deshpande (4/57) and Tanush Kotian (4/72) shared the spoils equally as North, who were placed comfortably at 117 for 2 at one stage, were left gasping for breath at 220 for 9 before Anshul Kamboj's audacious 60 off 52 balls with five fours and equal number of maximums took them past 250-run mark.

North also made a mini comeback of sorts as left-arm spinner Abid Mushtaq bowled a peach of a delivery to castle opener Prithvi Shaw while other opener Harvik Desai was snapped up by India's T20 specialist Arshdeep Singh. West Zone ended the day's play at 31 for 2.

Tanush does star turn

In 2024-25, Kotian was summoned to Australia as a replacement of Ravichandran Ashwin, who had announced his retirement during the series. While he didn't get to play a game, Kotian with his all-round performance was in India contention and also went with India A to England in 2025.

However an indifferent 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season pushed him back in pecking order with Saransh Jain leapfrogging him to a Test cap. On the day, Kotian opened the bowling but it was in his second spell that he got the wicket of a dogged left-hander Ayush Doseja (42), who was caught by Urvil Patel.

Towards the latter half he polished the tail while Deshpande worked up brisk pace to hurry the batters and run through the middle-order. For North Zone, the baffling decision to drop opener Sanat Sangwan, who had scored 800 plus runs in Ranji Trophy, came back to haunt them.

The questionable selection of Yash Dhull, saw the former India U-19 skipper badly exposed as he couldn't play Kotian or Mukesh Choudhary confidently. He was finally dismissed by Shardul Thakur.

Ayush Badoni (51) was impressive till the time he stayed at the crease looking at ease against both pace and spin. Once Badoni was dismissed, there was no resistance from other batters until Kamboj saved them from embarrassment.

Brief Scores:
North Zone 1st Innings: 251 in 66.5 overs (Ayush Badoni 51, Anshul Kamboj 60, Tanush Kotian 4/72, Tushar Deshpande 4/57). West Zone 1st innings: 31/2 in 10 overs (Abid Mushtaq 1/5).

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