Patidar notched up his second hundred of the Duleep Trophy 2025 tournament – this time coming up with a ton in the final for Central Zone against South Zone. Patidar, who scored century in the Duleep Trophy 2025 quarter-finals as well, notched up 101 off 115 balls on Day 2 of the final in Bengaluru to put his side firmly on top.
Patidar and Yash Rathod scored centuries to lift Central Zone to a commanding 384 for five on Day 2 of the Duleep Trophy final on Friday. Central Zone now have a commanding lead of 235 runs after Patidar (101, 115 balls) and Rathod (137 batting, 188 balls) scored their 15th and 7th first-class centuries respectively.
WATCH Rajat Patidar complete his century on Day 2 of Duleep Trophy Final HERE…
Saransh Jain (47 batting) was giving company to Rathod at stumps. RCB captain Patidar put on 167 runs for the fourth wicket with centurion Rathod to bail Central Zone out of trouble when they were struggling at 93 for 3 in reply to South Zone’s 148.
Overnight 50 for no loss, Central added 102 runs in the first session but lost openers Danish Malewar (53) and Akshay Wadkar (22) and No.3 batter Shubham Sharma (6) in quick succession. Chennai Super Kings and Tamil Nadu pacer Gurjapneet Singh (3/74) was the pick of bowlers in that session, moving the ball around appreciably under grey skies.
Patidar took Central past South Zone’s first innings total of 148, when he swept leg-spinner Ricky Bhui for boundary. Patidar and Rathod then turned on the aggression to add 124 runs in the post-lunch session.
The Madhya Pradesh and Central Zone captain Patidar was the aggressor as he played some cracking drives around the ground and punished Bhui with 4, 6, 4 off successive balls. Soon, he smashed Gurjapneet for a four and six off successive balls to move into the 90s, and the hundred came without much delay with a single off left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma.
Patidar’s 50 came in 73 balls but his next fifty came off just 39 balls, as South Zone had only one genuine spinner in Ankit.
Rathod, last season’s highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy, fetched his fifty in 84 balls, and then marched to the three-figure mark in 132 balls with a single off Ankit, and he celebrated the moment with a short run with outstretched hands.