Vaibhav Tripathi
The first round of the 2025 Duleep Trophy took place in Bengaluru, where both quarter-final matches — North Zone vs East Zone and Central Zone vs North East Zone ended in draws. However, North Zone and Central Zone progressed to the semi-finals by securing first-innings leads in their respective games.
A plethora of capped Indian players were on display, but it was the uncapped players who made headlines in the first round of the six-team tournament.
Chasing 679 to win, North East Zone were 200/6 in 58 overs when the two teams agreed to a draw on the fourth and final day. Meanwhile, North Zone declared their second innings at 658/4, setting a target of 834 runs for East Zone to complete an unrealistic chase in the final session of the last day.
Runs galore in Bengaluru as the batters made the most of the excellent batting conditions of BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. Ayush Badoni top-scored in the first quarter-final with an unbeaten 204. Alongside him, the other two centurions were skipper Ankit Kumar and Yash Dhull. Largely due to their efforts, North Zone posted a mammoth target. In the first innings, they scored 405, with wicketkeeper-batter Kanhaiya Wadhawan emerging as the top scorer with a 76-run knock.
On a pitch where over 1,200 runs were scored across three innings, two bowlers stood out. The 21-year-old Manishi claimed six wickets in his first Duleep Trophy outing, all LBWs, as he impressed with his left-arm spin. While Manishi bowled brilliantly, Auqib Nabi made history by becoming the first bowler to take four wickets in four balls. After early breakthroughs from Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, Auqib ran through the middle and lower-middle order of East Zone to restrict them to 230 in their only innings of the game. Playing his first match after IPL 2025, Mohammed Shami took just one wicket across both innings. Riyan Parag also had a somewhat tough outing — both with the bat and as captain of East Zone.
In the second quarter-final, Central Zone had a real chance of winning after reducing North East Zone to 66/3 in their run chase of 679. However, thanks to fighting half-centuries from skipper Rongsen Jonathan and wicketkeeper-batter Jehu Anderson, North East Zone managed to secure a draw.
The foundation of Central Zone’s first-innings lead was laid by Danish Malewar’s unbeaten 203. Rajat Patidar complemented him well with 125 and followed this with a half-century in the second innings. A dominant first innings with the bat was backed by an all-round effort from the bowlers, with Aditya Thakare leading the way with a three-wicket haul on a relatively flat surface. Shubman Sharma also starred with a century in the second innings, along with taking a couple of wickets in the fourth innings. Last season’s Ranji Trophy highest run-scorer Yash Rathod scored an unbeaten 87 and 78 in the game.
Kuldeep Yadav failed to pick up any wickets in the 32 overs he bowled. Harsh Dubey fared better, taking four wickets — two in each innings.
The next round of the Duleep Trophy will see North Zone take on South Zone, while Central Zone will face West Zone. Both matches will begin on September 4.
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