East Zone Clinch Duleep Trophy for First Time in 13 Years

East Zone batter, Md Kounain Quraishi scored his maiden first-class hundred in the Duleep Trophy against South Zone. His brilliant ton (116 runs), laced with 13 fours and four sixes was just an icing on the cake as his team clinched the Duleep Trophy Championship for the first time in 13 years. They beat South Zone by the virtue of first-inning leads on the fifth and final day of the summit clash at the MAC Stadium in Chennai.

East Zone began day 5 as they came out to bat, resuming the innings at 212 for five. But the proceedings were largely academic as they had already amassed a mammoth lead of 584 runs. And while South Zone were already reeling behind in the match, East Zone batter, Anukul Roy and Quraishi piled on the agony by stitching together a brilliant 150-run partnership for the seventh wicket.

The south zone bowlers were already quite tired, and Quraishi feasted on their bowling and enjoyed batting on a muggy day. The right hander got an array of sweet half volleys down the leg side and wide ball, which he gleefully drove to the fence and added runs to his first-class career.

The captain of East Zone, Ishan Kishan eventually declared the innings at 388 for seven just before tea with an overall lead of 760 runs, bringing down the curtains on the game. Incidentally, East Zone’s last Duleep Trophy win also came at this very same venue against Central Zone.

After the victory, East Zone coach Ratan Kumar said, “Everyone came in with a single mindset. East Zone had assembled a very strong squad after many years, and we had to give our absolute best to make this opportunity count.”

Brief Scores:

East Zone: 708 and 338/7 declared in 99.2 overs (Md Kounain Quraishi 116*, Ishan Kishan 80: MD Nideesh 2/28)

South Zone: 336 in 107.3 overs