Devdutt Padikkal shines in Duleep Trophy final after Test exploits
What's the story
Devdutt Padikkal, the Karnataka-born cricketer, has continued his stellar form in the ongoing Duleep Trophy 2026 final. After a brilliant Test series against Sri Lanka in August, where he scored two centuries in three innings and was named Player of the Series, Padikkal joined South Zone's squad for the summit clash against East Zone. He scored a fine half-century in the second innings of the game, which is being played at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Performance details
A fine hand from the southpaw
A stunning 270 from Ishan Kishan meant East Zone posted a massive 708/10 while batting first.
In response, South Zone lost Ricky Bhui (1) cheaply, and Padikkal arrived at No. 3.
The southpaw looked comfortable against the red ball as he brought up his half-century off just 65 balls.
Padikkal added 60 runs with Narayan Jagadeesan for the second wicket before forming another partnership with Shaik Rasheed that yielded 56 runs for the third wicket.
Information
Padikkal dismissed for 62
Padikkal looked in good touch but missed out on a big score, getting out to Mukesh Kumar in the 36th over. He walked back after scoring 62 off 104 balls, a knock laced with four boundaries.
Stats
Here are his FC stats
As per Cricinfo, Padikkal has been sound in First-Class cricket overall.
This was his 22nd fifty in the format, as he also owns 11 tons.
Playing his 59th First-Class match (97 innings), Padikkal has now raced to 4,190 runs at a fine average of 45-plus.
418 of his runs have come across seven Test innings at 69.66.
Both his hundreds came in the recent Sri Lanka series, where he scored 328 runs across three innings.