Duleep Trophy Final 2025: Yash Rathod registered his career-best knock of 194 runs as Central Zone has got a huge lead of 362 runs against South Zone and has completely dominated the Duleep Trophy summit clash in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Central Zone began their third day on a high as they were 384/5, where Rathod scored an unbeaten knock of 137 runs, but were then bundled out for 511 runs, just one hour after lunch. Till stumps, South Zone had scored 129/2 during their second innings and were trailing by 233 runs, where Ravichandran Smaran and Ricky Bhui were out there in the middle.
But Day 3 was all about Rathod, who was the highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy last year, as he had scored 960 runs. He entered aiming to prove his worth, but fell short of well-deserved hundreds against the North East Zone. By scoring 87 and 78 during the quarter final and scoring just two runs during the semifinal against West Zone, Rathod was able to convert his start into a big knock.
After beginning the third day on 137, he scored 150 runs off 223 balls and broke his earlier record of 151. He stitched a brilliant partnership of 176 runs for the sixth wicket with Saransh Jain, who scored a gritty knock of 69 runs. The highlight of Rathod’s knock was his ability to dominate left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma as he scored 76 runs off 84 balls, which included seven fours and one six.
Talking about his knock, Rathod said, “When I came in to bat, we were in a good position with a first-innings lead in sight. But initially, I was over-trying, and Gurjapneet (Singh) was consistently hitting the right areas with swing and seam. Once the spinners came on, I focused on reacting to the ball and looking to dominate. Rajat Bhai (Patidar) advised me to control my nerves and focus on reacting rather than overthinking. That helped after lunch.”
Central were 488/6 till lunch as Ankit had dismissed Jain, and then Gurjapneet took Rathod’s wicket. Rathod’s wicket led to a batting collapse as the last three wickets fell after scoring just 11 runs.
South Zone shows resistance in the 2nd innings
After getting skittled out for just 149 runs, South Zone batters did make a brilliant comeback. Openers Tanmay Agarwal and Mohit Kale stitched a partnership of 62 runs, but then Jain dismissed Kale plumb in front.
Agarwal mistimed a shot in Kuldeep Sen’s over as the ball went over the stumps instead of going past the bails.
South theb made a brilliant comeback as Smaran and Bhui stitched a brilliant partnership of 53 runs for the third wicket. Jain had dismissed Smaran by leg before, but the batter took a successful DRS review. He looked calm after playing lots of brilliant offside drives.