Duleep Trophy 2026: Tilak Varma shines with twin 50-plus scores
What's the story
Tilak Varma's twin 50-plus scores in Bengaluru propelled South Zone to the 2026 Duleep Trophy final. The South Zone skipper scored an unbeaten 116 in the first innings and followed it up with a solid 51*. This helped South Zone chase 181 against North Zone. South Zone will now face East Zone in the final at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
Knocks
Tilak's unbeaten knocks in semi-final
In the first innings, South Zone were reduced to 80/5 in response to North Zone's 195.
Tilak then built a massive 175-run partnership with Shreyas Gopal, who scored 87 runs. The former's 116* off 250 balls (9 fours) stood out.
He scored 51* off 79 balls (8 fours) on the fourth day as South Zone won by seven wickets.
Numbers
A look at his numbers
According to Cricinfo, Tilak raced to his eighth century in First-Class cricket. In the second innings, he completed his sixth half-century, making his conversion outstanding.
The 23-year-old left-handed batter now has 1,729 runs from 24 red-ball games (37 innings) at an incredible average of 55.77.
Tilak, India's vice-captain in T20Is, is yet to make his Test debut.