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Ishan Kishan claims a massive achievement in his domestic cricket career. On the first day of the ongoing final match of the Duleep Trophy 2026, Ishan, the East Zone captain, completed his 4,000 runs in his First-Class cricket career. Alongside the leader of the team, Ishan Kishan continued to shine with his batting as well in domestic cricket.
During the 60th over of the match against South Zone in Chennai, Ishan touched the 3,000-run milestone. According to stats, the keeper-batter has completed 4,000 runs playing in only 109 innings in First-Class cricket. So far, he has registered 19 half-centuries and nine centuries, including a highest score of 273 runs.
4,000 First-Class cricket runs for Ishan Kishan
During the course, the middle-order batter has maintained a batting average of 40.00. To win the 2026 Duleep Trophy, defeating a star-studded South Zone, Ishan Kishan will have to show his true potential with the bat. Since the previous season, when he guided Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title, he has been maintaining promising form.
East Zone started their innings on a nice note on a fresh track at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. The openers, Abhimanyu Eeswaran and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, started things off nicely for the team. Sooryavanshi missed a half-centuryby only 6 runs, while Eeswaran went on to complete his half-century.
Multiple half-centuries for East Zone in Duleep Trophy 2026 final
Shikhar Mohan, one of the most underrated batters of the team, came at No.3 to add 85 runs to the team's total in the first innings. South Zone tried to dent the opposing team's momentum by taking wickets of Audio Gharami and Eeswaran in a short duration. But Ishan Kishan was there to keep things stable for East Zone. He looked confident while playing the early few shots in his innings, which he converted to complete his 4,000 First Class runs and another half-century.
The third session of Day 1 of East Zone was mostly dependent on Ishan Kishan and Kumar Kushagra. The match is expected to be a thriller as East Zone already edged past the 300-run mark. South Zone also has a well-compact batting line-up. Devdutt Padikkal has been added to the team for the final match; captain Tilak Varma played a match-defining century in the semi-final.
Mohammed Siraj turns costly for South Zone on Day 1
In comparison to East Zone's batting, the bowling of South Zone remained mostly disappointing throughout the day, especially their main pacer Mohammed Siraj, who leaked plenty of runs when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi wasatn the crease. Currently, Siraj has an economy rate of 6.86 after bowling in 14 overs.
While Mohammed Siraj proved costly, another fast bowler of the team, Chama Milind, delivered with effect. During writing this article, Milind took the wickets of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Shikhar Mohan. Both Mohan and Sooryavanshi could do more damage to South Zone as they were scoring runs with ease.
From this point, East Zone has a bright oppoertunity to secure a massive total in their first innings.
