The Duleep Trophy 2025 concluded with a memorable victory for Central Zone, who defeated South Zone by six wickets at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Skipper Rajat Patidar, along with the support of Yash Rathod and Saransh Jain, guided his team to their first Duleep Trophy title in almost 11 years, bringing an end to a long wait for silverware. Central Zone last lifted the Duleep Trophy in the 2014-15 season, also against South Zone.
Coming into the final, they had strong momentum after
progressing through the earlier rounds on first-innings leads. The contest with Central electing to bowl first. South Zone suffered a collapse on their opening day, bundled out for just 149. Saransh Jain and Kumar Kartikeya accounted for nine of the ten wickets.
Central replied with a mammoth batting performance. Yash Rathod hammered 194, while captain Patidar contributed with a 101. Jain added 69 valuable runs as Central finished on 511, securing a 362-run first-innings lead.
South Zone bounced back in the second innings. Ravichandran Smaran, Ricky Bhui, and captain Mohammed Azharuddeen chipped in, but all-rounder Ankit Sharma, who missed a century by just one run, and Andre Siddarth, who hammered an unbeaten 84, played big roles. Their 192-run stand took South to 426. However, the target for Central was just 65.
Despite the target, the morning of the fifth day witnessed Ankit Sharma and pacer Gurjapneet Singh exploiting the early conditions to pick three early wickets. Patidar attempted to stabilize the chase but fell after some time.
Akshay Wadkar and Rathod sealed the victory inside 21 overs, sparking jubilant celebrations in the Central camp. Saransh Jain’s all-round brilliance of 69 runs and match figures of 8 for 179 earned him the Player of the Series award. While Rathod was named Player of the Match.
