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Desk: In the first semi-final of Duleep Trophy 2026, the fast bowlers of East Zone brought the batsmen of Central Zone to their knees with their swing and speed. After being bundled out for 266 runs in the first innings, Central Zone's second innings was bundled out for just 158 ​​runs by the lethal pair of Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar. This fast bowling pair together took 12 wickets in the entire match.

Amazing bowling was seen from East Zone in this match. The pair of Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar took wickets continuously. After Central Zone bundled out the first innings for 266 runs, Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar dominated the second innings as well. In the first innings, Mohammed Shami took 2 wickets and Mukesh Kumar took 3 wickets. At the same time, Mukesh Kumar took 4 wickets for 44 runs in 12 overs in the second innings. On the other hand, experienced Mohammed Shami sent 3 batsmen to the pavilion. Abhijeet Sarkar, Anukul Roy and Qunain Qureshi also got 1 success each.

A special moment was also seen in this semi-final. Actually, this match was quite disappointing for Central Zone captain Rajat Patidar. In both the innings, he was bowled by playing on the incoming ball of Mukesh Kumar in exactly the same manner. He scored 12 runs in the first innings and only 5 runs in the second innings. Immediately after taking the wicket of Patidar in the second innings, Mukesh Kumar touched the feet of his senior fellow fast bowler Mohammed Shami and took blessings, the video and photo of which went viral on social media.

No batsman from the Central Zone could survive and play a big innings to reach the score of 158 runs in the second innings. The team lost 3 wickets for 37 runs in the beginning and 7 wickets by the time it reached 95 runs. During this, Aman Mokhade scored the maximum 41 runs for the team. At the same time, in the end, Harsh Dubey's 24 runs and Arshad Khan's 25 runs struggled and took the score beyond 150.