Central Zone ease to Duleep Trophy title after perfect performance sees them beat the South Zone by 6 wickets.
The highlights of Central Zone winning their first Duleep Trophy victory in nearly 11 years were Rajat Patidar’s rapid 101, Saransh Jain’s 69 with the bat in the first innings and his match haul of 8 for 179 with the ball, and Yash Rathod’s career-best 194. At the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, Central lost four wickets while chasing just 65 on the final morning, but Akshay Wadkar and Rathod maintained their composure to help their team defeat South Zone by six wickets.
On the fifth morning, left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma had plenty of bounce and grip, and fast bowler Gurjapneet Singh also found enough movement to keep South engaged. The 65-run goal was never going to be intimidating, even though they both took two wickets.
After edging Ankit behind with a clip through midwicket for two, Danish Malewar got off to a quick start. Malewar was drawn into a tentative drive, but Ankit’s delivery, which was lightly tossed up, pitched and spun sharply away.
Gurjapneet let up two consecutive fours to Shubham Sharma. He got a thickish outside edge that soared past Gully after he edging the fast bowler to the right of wicketkeeper Mohammed Azharuddeen, who was wrong-footed. When Shubham attempted to hit a fuller-length outswinger from Gurjapneet but was only able to get an outside edge to Azharuddeen, his luck ran out on the very next ball.
As Central dropped to 24 for 3, Jain, who had been moved up to No. 4, flashed Gurjapneet over point first up but fell the next ball after receiving a thick inside edge on his pad with a short leg making a clean catch.
Even after Wadkar sent Ankit through midwicket off the back foot and then square drove Gurjapneet, Central continued to play aggressively despite Patidar’s early plays and misses.
After the early morning dampness subsided, Patidar played a few more balls, most notably two beautiful on-the-up drives to the left of mid-off against Ankit. He also survived a stumping chance. However, the fielder at mid-on did the rest after he dropped with Central 16 runs away, toe-ending a sweep off Ankit straight up.
Rathod appropriately hit the winning runs by hitting V Koushik through covers to end the game in 20.3 overs after Wadkar had reduced the target to single figures. It was Central’s first Duleep Trophy since the 2014–15 season, when they also defeated South, and their seventh overall (including a shared one).