Sept 1, 2025: Having taken a sizable lead that more or less put them in the semifinals, North Zone batsmen ground East Zone bowlers into submission as Ayush Badoni scored a double century in the Duleep Trophy quarter-finals on Sunday.

Resuming the day on 388/2, North showed no intention of giving East Zone a chase as they feasted on an already tired attack that missed Mohammed Shami. The veteran pacer, playing his first first-class match since November, did not bowl on the final day. Having sent down 11 overs in the second innings, Shami spent the day in the pavilion as a precautionary measure after rolling over his toe on Day 3. Due to a niggle in his thigh, fellow pacer Mukesh Kumar also did not bowl in the second innings. In their absence, East Zone were sent on a leather hunt. North Zone skipper Ankit Kumar, unbeaten on 168 overnight, couldn’t get to a double century as he fell for 198. But Badoni, resuming the day at 56, showed how much he has developed in the red-ball format. The Delhi batsman was fluent as he hit 13 boundaries and three sixes in his 223-ball stay for an unbeaten 204, his second double century in first-class cricket after scoring 499 runs in the previous Ranji season. He joined Haryana's Nishant Sindhu (68, 91b, 24, 56) for a 157-run stand for the fourth wicket to extend the lead past 700 runs after a 150-run partnership with Ankit. North finished with an overall lead of 833 runs.

Man of the match was Auqib Nabi, who took five wickets, including a hat trick, in East Zone's first innings. So, why did North Zone decide to bat on despite having a chance to press for an outright victory?

We had the upper hand, so we could have pursued the outcome if we wanted to. However, due to our advantage in the first inning, we did not attempt. We batted very well in the first innings and then bowled well,” said Ankit.
“Ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup, we also wanted to keep Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as fresh as possible. But we made some wrong decisions while batting in the first innings. We could have dominated even more otherwise. North Zone will face South Zone in the semifinals.

North-East hold on for a draw:
A spirited effort by North-East Zone prevented Central Zone from reaching the semifinals with a win in the other quarterfinal. Central Zone declared at their overnight score of 331/7, giving North East a 679-run target after taking a 347-run lead in the first innings. And just like the first innings, North-East batsmen made Central work hard for their wickets. To frustrate the Central bowlers, including Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, and Kuldeep Yadav, wicketkeeper Jehu Anderson (64 off 96 balls) and skipper Rongsen Jonathan (60 off 97 balls) batted cautiously throughout the day. The trio went wicketless in the second innings.

Brief scores: North Zone 405 & 658/4d (Ayush Badoni 204*, Ankit Kumar 198) drew with East Zone 230. (Jehu Anderson 64, Rongsen Jonathan 60) Central Zones 532/4d and 331/7d drew with North-East Zones 185 and 200/6