Central Zone defeated North East Zone soundly in the second quarter-final of the Duleep Trophy 2025.
The match being played at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground in Bengaluru has just ended on Day 2, and Central Zone is all up.
North East Zone won the toss and elected to bowl first, but Central Zone batsmen made such a blast that the score was declared at 532/4, that too in just 102 overs.
Central Zone’s batting lineup did wonders. Danish Malever played a blistering innings of 203 runs, which included 36 fours and 1 six. He retired out.
Captain Rajat Patidar also hit 125 runs, with 21 fours and 3 sixes. Yash Rathod remained not out on 87, and Aryan Juyal scored 60 runs but retired hurt. Shubham Sharma added 34 runs.
In the end, the team’s run rate was 5.22, which was quite fast. Among the North East bowlers, Akash Chaudhary took 2 wickets, but the rest proved to be expensive.
Now let’s talk about North East Zone’s batting.
They scored 172/7 in 65 overs in the first innings, and are still trailing by 360 runs. Karanjit Yumnam scored 48 runs, Ashish Thapa 34, and Ankur Malik is not out on 31.
But wickets kept falling, there were two runouts, and Central’s bowlers bowled tightly. Aditya Thackeray made a blast with 3/24, Harsh Dubey took 2/19.
A star like Kuldeep Yadav also gave only 63 runs in 20 overs, did not get any wicket but created pressure. North East’s run rate is only 2.65, which tells how much trouble they are in.
Superb batting has put Central Zone in a strong position.
If North East is all out early tomorrow morning, Central may give them a follow-on. The match started on August 28, umpires are Kaushik Gandhi and Abhijeet Bhattacharya.
Now it is an exciting match, where Central’s star-studded team (like Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar) is on the verge of defeating North East.
