South Zone beat West Zone by 35 runs in Duleep Trophy 2023 Final

South Zone defeated the West Zone side by 75 runs to clinch the 2023 edition of the Duleep Trophy on Sunday, July 16 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru. South Zone bowler, Vidhwath Kaverappa was awarded the Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament award for his exceptional performance with the ball.

While chasing a target of 298 runs, West Zone started off their innings from 182/5 on Sunday morning, and they were bundled out on 222 runs. The pick of the bowlers for South Zone was a left-arm spinner, R. Sai Kishore, and right-arm seamer, Vasuki Koushik who snapped four wickets in their respective spells of 20.2 overs and 25 overs respectively. Where on the one hand Sai Kishore conceded 57 runs and bowled two maiden overs while on the other hand, Koushik conceded 36 runs and bowled seven maiden overs.

Priyank Panchal’s innings went in vain

This is South Zone’s 14th title in the history of the Duleep Trophy. They also completed revenge as in 2022, West Zone defeated South Zone by 294 runs. Priyank Panchal who re-started their innings from 92 runs was one of the threats for the South Zone but he went back to the pavilion after scoring 95 runs off 211 balls which included 11 fours in his innings.

His dismissal ended the chances of West Zone clinching the title. Atit Sheth and Dharmendra Jadeja, who are known for turning around games for the South side built up a partnership of 23 runs for the eight wicket. This partnership helped the West Zone side to cross the 200 mark, and everyone started hoping that they can win from there, but that was not the case.

Jadeja misjudged spinner Sai Kishore’s ball in an attempt to clear the fence, but Washington Sundar took the catch to dismiss him. The last wicket went Sheth lofted Sai Kishore directly into Washington’s hands at long-on.