They say making things happen is a skill.
When East Zone walked onto the field for the third day of the Duleep Trophy 2026 final against South Zone, it knew that making things happen was the name of the game for the day. More specifically, armed with a mammoth 708 runs on the board from its first innings, making things happen 10 times on a surface with little help was what it needed to do to seal the trophy.
As it walked off the field 80 overs of hard toil later, it was still four wickets away from its target but it can be largely satisfied with its pursuit of that goal.
“Our plan was to make them play. The more bat they put on the ball, the more chances get created. That was our mindset,” pacer Mukesh Kumar told the media after the day’s play on Tuesday.
Mukesh and his seam-bowling partner Mohammed Shami combined for four of the six wickets their side claimed across the day, using all of their experience to extract the maximum out of decidedly unhelpful conditions.
The pair followed a clear modus operandi through the day: bowling short, sharp stints to avoid tiring under the sweltering Chennai heat.
East Zone captain Ishan Kishan rotated the pair through the day with young spinners Md Kounain Qureshi and Shikhar Mohan (filling in for the injured Anukul Roy) holding up the other end. By the close of the play, the spinners had bowled nearly twice the number of overs as the pair (44 to 23).
“You have to do this. It’s very hot here and the wicket was flat, so it wasn’t possible to bowl more than 5-6 over spells. If you bowl spells for that long, you’ll start cramping,” Mukesh explained. “Our plan as a group was to come in small spells. If there had to be a five or six over spell, we would convert it into three overs and put all our effort into that.”
The effect of the heat was also noticeable in their speeds. The pair – who are both capable of touching 140kmph – hovered around the 130kmph mark not unlike Mohammed Siraj over the previous two days.
Instead of airspeed, the difference came in their accuracy and ability to generate probing movement off the wicket. Through the first two sessions of the day, the pair made the South Zone batters look far more uncomfortable than any of the East Zone batters had, beating the bat and finding edges on multiple occasions.
“After 10-15 overs, there was a little bit of movement in the ball,” Mukesh reflected. “There was a little bit of movement and reverse, and we were able to take advantage of that to take wickets.”
“On this wicket, I didn’t pitch it up too much because I could have been driven, so I moved back to hit that back of a length,” he explained. “On red soil, if we hit a length hard, then it will move, so we worked a lot on that.”
“Speaking for myself, the more effort I put, hitting the same length, the more it will move regardless of the wicket.”
That movement, combined with an element of fortune, helped him account for Ricky Bhui strangled down leg. His other wicket, that of the in-form Devdutt Padikkal caught in the deep, came courtesy of his accuracy in targeting the stumps.
“We knew we had to bowl stump-to-stump with Devdutt, because we knew that if we bowl outside the stumps, on such wickets we will leak runs. Our plan as fast bowlers was to stay as consistent as possible and bowl dot balls, letting them take the risks. They would try to force the pace and get out because they need to score runs.,” he explained.
Mukesh Kumar said East Zone wanted to force the batters to play more on a placid pitch.
| Photo Credit:
R RAGU
Mukesh Kumar said East Zone wanted to force the batters to play more on a placid pitch.
| Photo Credit:
R RAGU
From the other end, his partner Shami looked evergreen in his 100th First-Class match as he trapped Shaik Rasheed leg-before and nicked off R. Smaran after Lunch. Mukesh shared that the pair continually gave each other advice through the day, saying, “We were discussing how the ball was moving, and how to get it to reverse. When I was bowling, he was telling me, and when his bowling was coming, I was telling him what I felt.”
Their collective experience also shone through in the way they managed the ball.
“We took care of the ball, putting sweat on it and shining it to make it reverse,” the 32-year-old explained. “On red soil wickets, balls can get damp and spoiled easily, so to get the reverse, it is important to shine it and maintain it. We worked on that, and we were able to get movement.”
With South Zone six wickets down and 466 runs behind at the close of play, East Zone now stands on the precipice of a historic Duleep Trophy victory after a wait of 14 years. Before that though, there is the matter of finishing the game.
Holding such a commanding advantage, East Zone has the opportunity to enforce the follow-on and go for an outright win, meaning more bowling in the heat for Mukesh and his partner. The Bengal quick, though, was happy to go with the flow, smiling wryly as he said, “There is heat, but we will go with what the situation demands.”
Published on Sep 08, 2026
