The first semi-final of the Duleep Trophy 2025 ended in Bengaluru with a lot of excitement, but the result was a draw! South Zone scored a mammoth 536 runs in 169.2 overs in their first innings. North Zone scored 361 runs in 100.1 overs in reply.
South Zone drew the match by scoring 95/1 in 24.4 overs in the second innings. North Zone won the toss and chose to bowl first, but South’s batsmen thwarted their strategy. South’s captain Mohammad Azharuddin became the Player of the Match, even though he could score only 11 runs in the first innings.
In South Zone’s first innings, Narayan Jagadeesan played a brilliant innings of 197 runs, which included 16 fours and 2 sixes. Devdutt Padikkal scored 57, Tanay Tyagarajan scored 58, and Ricky Bhui scored 54 runs. Tanmay Agarwal scored 43, Salman Nijar 29, and Gurjapanit Singh added 29 runs.
Captain Azharuddin was out on 11 runs. V Kaushik remained unbeaten on 11 and MD Nidhish on 2 runs. 30 runs came in extras. North’s Nishant Sindhu took 5 wickets, Anshul Kamboj took 2, and Mayank Dagar and Sahil Lotra took 1-1 wickets.
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Shubham Khajuria scored a brilliant century of 128 runs in North Zone’s innings. Nishant Sindhu scored 82, Ayush Badoni scored 40, and Mayank Dagar scored 31 runs. Yash Dhul scored 14, captain Ankit Kumar scored 6, and Yudhveer Singh Charak added 7 runs.
Kanhaiya Wadhawan was run out without opening the account. South’s Gurjapaneet Singh took 4 wickets, MD Nidhish took 3, Tanay Tyagarajan and V Kaushik took 1 wicket each.
In South’s second innings, Narayan Jagadeesan remained unbeaten on 52, Devdutt Padikkal was unbeaten on 16, and Tanmay Agarwal was out after scoring 13 runs. North’s Aaqib Nabi took the only wicket. With the match ending in a draw, South Zone qualified for the final on the basis of their first innings lead.
