Central Zone Wins 2025 Duleep Trophy, Beats South Zone by 6 Wickets

Central Zone defeated South Zone by 6 wickets in the final held at BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru to win the 2025 Duleep Trophy title. Central Zone won this title for the 7th time and after 11 years under the leadership of Rajat Patidar.

• Central Zone emerged champion of 2025 Duleep Trophy by defeating South Zone by 6 wickets in a high-quality final. This match held at BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru ended the 11-year wait under the leadership of Rajat Patidar and gave Central Zone its first title after 2014-15.
• Central Zone defeated South Zone by 6 wickets in the final to win the Duleep Trophy title for the 7th time. Earlier the team had been champion in 1971-72, 1996-97, 2004-05 and 2014-15. While in 1997-98 Central Zone had shared the Duleep Trophy title with West Zone.
• Patidar, who had recently led Royal Challengers Bengaluru to its first IPL title, added another achievement by leading his regional team to victory on home ground.
• In this match Central Zone took a huge first-innings lead of 362 runs, which proved decisive despite some resistance by South Zone in the second innings. The last title was won in 2014/15 under the leadership of Piyush Chawla.

Prize money

• As Duleep Trophy champion Central Zone got prize money of one crore. The runner-up team South Zone got 50 lakh rupees. Since 2023, there has been a huge increase in the prize money of domestic cricket and salaries of players.
• Earlier the team winning the Duleep Trophy used to get 40 lakh rupees and the runner-up team got 20 lakh rupees. Saransh Jain was awarded Player of the Series and Yash Rathore was awarded Player of the Match.

Duleep Trophy schedule

• 2025-26 Duleep Trophy, the 62nd edition of India’s domestic first-class cricket competition, was held from 28 August to 15 September, 2025. This tournament returned to a regional format, including six teams: Central Zone, East Zone, North Zone, North East Zone, South Zone and West Zone.
• The competition was started by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the 1961-62 season. The inaugural tournament was won by West Zone defeating South Zone in the final by 10 wickets.
• North Zone and West Zone have won this title the most 18 times each. Its name Duleep Trophy is after Kumar Duleepsinhji of Nawanagar.