Duleep Trophy: Abid Mushtaq helps North Zone beat West Zone
What's the story
In a stunning display of spin bowling, Jammu and Kashmir's Abid Mushtaq led North Zone to a 52-run victory over West Zone in the 2026 Duleep Trophy quarter-final. Mushtaq's impressive overall figures of 9/99 were instrumental in the win. The match, played at BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, went down to the final day, with West needing 67 runs and North requiring three wickets for victory.
1st innings
Story of first innings
North Zone's Anshul Kamboj top-scored with 60 in the first innings, taking them from a precarious 161/7 to 251. Ayush Badoni earlier scored 51 (57).
Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande took four wickets for WZONE.
North Zone took a 64-run first-innings lead after bowling West out for 187 in 65.4 overs. Abid Mushtaq shone with a fifer (5/39 in 25.4 overs).
2nd innings
How the second innings panned out
Another half-century from Ayush Badoni (50 off 62 balls) helped North Zone post 222 in 51 overs in the second innings. Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani took four wickets each.
Chasing 287, West Zone were powered by notable knocks from Musheer Khan (96) and skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad (66).
However, Abid Mushtaq's four-fer (4/60) starred in North Zone's 52-run win.
Numbers
A look at notable numbers
According to Cricinfo, as many as 25 wickets fell to spin on what was a red-soil surface.
J&K finished with a match haul of 9/99. This was his second haul of 10 wickets.
The left-arm spinner now has 143 wickets from 46 First-Class games at an average of 21.44, including 10 fifers.
Meanwhile, Badoni reached 10 half-centuries in red-ball cricket.
Information
North Zone to face South Zone
After a thrilling win, North Zone will face the Tilak Varma-led South Zone in the first semi-final of the ongoing Duleep Trophy at BCCI's Centre of Excellence from August 30.