East Zone clinched the Duleep Trophy for the third time on Thursday after overcoming South Zone via first innings at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. The triumph also meant East Zone ended a 13-year drought to win the prestigious title, its last win coming in the 2012–13 season.
Brief scores: East Zone 708 and 388/7 in 99.2 overs (Md Kounain Quraishi 116, Ishan Kishan 80; MD Nidheesh 2-28, CV Milind 1-27) draw with South Zone 336 (Tilak Varma 99; Mukesh Kumar 3-62)
Despite the unyielding pitch and oppressive humidity at Chepauk, South Zone pacer Mohammed Siraj bowled his heart out by sending down nine consecutive overs in a gruelling spell, despite the match’s outcome being practically decided. Following the declaration, the East Zone players broke into celebrations on the turf, with Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, apart from breaking into a jig with a stump in hand, waving to the cheering spectators. South Zone were penalised five runs in the 73rd over due to an unacceptably slow over-rate, following a prolonged discussion between the match officials and South Zone captain Tilak Varma.
The contest had tilted decisively in East Zone’s favour after posting a mammoth 708 in their first innings, built around captain Ishan Kishan’s monumental 270 and 101 made by Kumar Kushagra. Kishan followed up his double century with 80 in the second innings, and took his match tally to 350 runs. Earlier in the morning, Quraishi and Roy extended their seventh-wicket partnership to 150 runs, and pushed East Zone’s total beyond the 700-run mark.
