Duleep Trophy 2026: Defending champions Central Zone knocked out
What's the story
East Zone beat defending champions Central Zone to reach the 2026 Duleep Trophy final. The three-day affair saw the Ishan Kishan-led East Zone chase down 159 and win by four wickets. While Harsh Dubey took four wickets in both innings, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's first-innings 92 (81) stood out. The final, scheduled in Chennai, will witness East Zone take on either South Zone or North Zone.
Match summary
How the match panned out
Asked to bat, Central Zone racked up 266, riding on Rinku Singh's 60 (88) and a late contribution from Yash Thakur.
East Zone responded with an identical score (266), even though they had a 161-run opening stand. Sooryavanshi and Abhimanyu Easwaran scored half-centuries.
Mukesh Kumar and Mohammed Shami then combined to stop Central Zone at 158.
East Zone stumbled in the chase, but skipper Ishan Kishan's 39* (41) took them home.
Knock
Boundary-laden knocks from Sooryavanshi
In the first innings, Sooryavanshi joined forces with Easwaran. The two added 161 runs in just 25 overs, with Sooryavanshi doing the bulk of the scoring.
He hit 7 fours and as many sixes in his 92-run knock off just 81 balls.
The young batter also smashed 40 off 43 balls (3 fours and 2 sixes) in the second innings.
Achievement
Youngest to score a Duleep Trophy fifty
With his first-innings knock, Sooryavanshi broke a record that stood for 57 years.
The previous youngest to score a half-century in the Duleep Trophy was the late Laxman Singh, who achieved the milestone at the age of 16 years and 23 days in 1969.
Sooryavanshi surpassed him at just 15 years and 157 days.