Central Zone win Duleep Trophy after miraculous 9-run win over South Zone

KL Rahul’s twin hundreds in the Duleep Trophy final earned him the man of the match despite the loss

Central Zone pulled off a miraculous 9-run victory over South Zone at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi to win the 2014-15 Duleep Trophy, handing Central Zone their first Duleep Trophy victory in 10 years.

The 9-run win by Central Zone is also the closest margin of victory in the Duleep Trophy ever, beating the previous best of 21 runs by North Zone against West Zone in February 2004.

What a thriller Duleep Trophy final turned out to be! Congrats to Central for upsetting much stronger South Zone...

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 2, 2014

Winners of duleep trophy 2014-14 pic.twitter.com/KWBNqldjED

— Naman Ojha (@namanojha35) November 2, 2014

Going into day 5, South Zone were 184/1 with KL Rahul well-set on 121*, ably accompanied by Baba Aparajith, who was on 30*, and needed just another 117 runs for victory with no less than 9 wickets in hand.

But the dismissal of Rahul, who was able to add just 9 runs to his overnight score, by Central Zone seamer Pankaj Singh not long after the start of play turned things around, especially as the experienced Dinesh Karthik fell for his second duck of the match just a couple of balls later.

The Tamil Nadu pair of Aparajith and R Prasanna, to their credit, did manage to consolidate the loss of two early wickets with a 49-run partnership. But just as they were looking on course to take their team to victory, Prasanna fell to the off-spin of Jalaj Saxena, shortly followed by Aparajith, who was stumped off the bowling of Piyush Chawla after making a patient 56, leaving South Zone precariously placed at 5/252.

Boosted by the glimmer of hope offered, Central Zone took the remaining wickets in quick succession, with Karnataka’s Shreyas Gopal being the last one to fall, to round off a completely unexpected victory, as South Zone lost the last 9 wickets for just 88 runs.

The wickets were shared around evenly by the Central Zone bowlers as while Ali Murtaza and Piyush Chawla took 3 wickets each, Pankaj and Saxena weren’t too far behind with 2 scalps each.

Earlier in the match, Central Zone posted a competitive total of 276 in the 1st innings after winning the toss and choosing to bat, courtesy of 79 from Robin Bist. Their score, though, was comfortably overhauled by South Zone, who scored 379 in reply, thanks largely to Rahul’s magnificent knock of 185. Trailing by 103 after the 1st innings, Central Zone needed a strong retort from their batsmen and that is exactly what they got as Bist scored 112 off 174 balls to set South Zone 301 in the 4th innings.

The team from South, much like the 1st innings, got a strong start with Rahul and Robin Uthappa, who out together a 168-run partnership first time around, racking up a 96-run opening stand before Uthappa’s dismissal on the score of 30, but their exemplary efforts at the top of the order have ultimately ended in vain.

Brief Scores

Central Zone 1st innings: 276 all out (Robin Bist 79, Baba Aparajith 2/26)

South Zone 1st innings: 379 all out ( KL Rahul 185, Ali Murtaza 4/59)

Central Zone 2nd innings: 403 all out (Robin Bist 112, Shreyas Gopal 4/60)

South Zone 2nd innings: 291 all out ( KL Rahul 130, Ali Murtaza 3/59)