On an attritional Day 3, where South Zone ground their way to 242 for 6 at 3.02 runs an over in response to East Zone’s imposing total of 708 in the Duleep Trophy final, Mohammed Shami handed a few lessons to his younger peers, Mohammed Siraj in particular.
If Siraj was watching how Shami operated on the Chepauk deck, where East Zone were a bowler short, Anukul Roy unavailable after an impact injury to his finger while batting, he’d have taken home something valuable about control and execution.
On a red-soil pitch prepared to last five days, the bowlers haven’t had the easiest conditions to work with yet. The wear has been gradual, though the ball did keep low at times when the spinners landed it on the rough. With two days still to go, the bowlers will feel there’s plenty here to exploit. Having conceded a huge total, South faced a mountain to climb from the start of their innings on Day 3 morning; getting anywhere near East’s total was always a stretch. Shami made it harder still, with the new ball and the old, alongside Mukesh Kumar, the pair choking South with a slow, patient squeeze.
With temperatures in the mid-30s and the humidity making it worse, the two seamers bowled in short spells, none longer than four overs, some just two or three, ensuring maximum effort whenever they did bowl. “Five or six-over spells wouldn’t really work here, because bowling five or six-over spells naturally brings cramps. So our plan as a bowling group was to bowl in short bursts, and if a spell was meant to be five or six overs, we converted it into three overs, meaning we put in maximum effort into every ball,” Mukesh said.
Unlike Siraj, who wasted the best of the seam-friendly conditions on Day 1 morning by bowling short and wayward, Shami was on the mark throughout. As Bharat Arun told this newspaper, hand Shami the red ball and conditions or situation barely register; his competitiveness, and the sight of batsmen struggling against his seam movement, bring him real joy.
What Shami passed on to Mukesh wasn’t any secret. Just a simple message: land the ball on the seam, hard into the pitch. “The other part is working on the ball, applying sweat repeatedly, polishing it, preparing it for reverse swing. On red soil like this, balls tend to scuff up and lose condition quickly. It comes down to how well you shine it and look after it; that’s crucial for reverse swing. We worked on that, and it gave us movement.”
It’s exactly what Siraj and the rest of South’s pace attack couldn’t manage, leaking runs instead. With the new ball, Shami offered control, and so did Mukesh, both attacking the stumps or making the batsmen play. The first two wickets, though, were gifts from South’s openers. Ricky Bhui edged Mukesh down the leg side, before N Jagadeesan fell to a loose shot. Part-time spinner Shikhar Mohan landed one wide, and the opener, going for a square drive, sliced it straight to the fielder at backward point.
Devdutt Padikkal and Shaik Rasheed steadied things briefly, but it didn’t last, and it was Shami who ended South’s resistance. After a three-over opening spell, he returned for his second and found reverse swing straight away, the reward, as Mukesh said, for looking after the ball. With the ball shaping sharply as it neared the batsman, Rasheed managed a couple of lovely flicks and drives regardless. But when Shami hit back-of-a-length and got one to nip in sharply, it thudded into his pads, and the 21-year-old was gone lbw.
East Zone’s Mohammed Shami, 15, celebrates with teammates for the wicket of South Zone’s Smaran Ravichandran on day 3 of the Duleep Trophy 2026-27 final cricket match between South Zone and East Zone, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (PTI Photo)
Shami had barely finished celebrating before Mukesh replaced him and had Padikkal too, an aerial flick straight to the fielder at deep square leg, out for 66. Four down, East turned to their spinners, and Tilak Varma and Ravichandran Smaran ground through the middle overs together. Shami returned for a third spell and ended Smaran’s innings testing him in the channel outside off. On a flat deck, his figures for the day read 11-4-17-2. Off-colour since the Sri Lanka Tests, Siraj got a live demonstration of exactly what’s required on pitches like this.
Once Smaran departed, captain Varma held one end together, Shreyas Gopal offering solid support at the other. Against the old ball, with the spinners in, they tried to wear East down, before Kounain Quraishi removed Shreyas off the final over of the day.
Brief scores: East Zone 708 vs South Zone 242 for 6 (Devdutt Padikkal 62, Tilak Varma 56 not out; Mohammed Shami 2/17, Mukesh Kumar 2/36), trail by 466 runs.