Two Duleep Trophy semi-finalists have not played a match yet, and both of them were in last season’s final
Central Zone and South Zone were seeded straight into the last four, while East Zone and North Zone reached it by winning quarter-finals that could not have been more different.
Aug 27, 2026
The Duleep Trophy semi-finals start on Sunday at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, and half the field arrives without having played a ball this season.
Central Zone meet East Zone on Ground 1. South Zone meet North Zone on Ground 2. Both matches run from 30 August to 2 September and start at 9:30am IST.
The byes went to last season’s finalists
Six zones, a straight knockout, and two of them seeded past the quarter-finals. Central Zone got a bye as defending champions and South Zone got one as runners-up, which means Rajat Patidar and Tilak Varma have had a fortnight of nets while the other four fought it out.
That final, last September, went to Central by six wickets for a seventh title, built on a first-innings lead of 362. Patidar made 101 in it and Yash Rathod made 194. Both are in the squad again, with Rinku Singh as vice-captain. Tilak Varma leads South once more, with Ricky Bhui as his deputy and Karun Nair in the middle order.
Win both semi-finals and the same two sides meet in the same fixture a year later.
East Zone did not need a fourth day
Ishan Kishan’s side put 467 on the board against North East Zone and then bowled them out twice for 257 between them, winning by an innings and 210 runs with a day to spare. Shahbaz Ahmed made 167 and took four wickets across the two innings. Abhijit Sarkar took 5 for 20, Anukul Roy 5 for 37.
Two things stand out from that scorecard going into a semi-final. Mohammed Shami sent down 14 overs and did not take a wicket. And Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who is 15 and is East Zone’s vice-captain, was out for 8 but returned 2 for 11 from three overs with the ball.
North Zone needed the fourth morning
The other quarter-final was a different sport. Neither side passed 251 in four innings, and North Zone won by 52 runs with West Zone 67 short and three wickets in hand when play began on the last day. Abid Mushtaq, the Jammu and Kashmir left-arm spinner, struck early on the final morning and finished with 9 for 99 for the match.
Musheer Khan made 96 and Ruturaj Gaikwad 66 in a chase that had West at 195 for 4 before it fell apart. Twenty-five of the wickets in the match went to finger spinners. The red soil at the Centre of Excellence has been doing that all week, and Kanhaiya Wadhawan’s side spent four days learning exactly how much.
Except both of them change grounds
East played their quarter-final on Ground 2 and now go to Ground 1. North played on Ground 1 and now go to Ground 2. Whatever either side learned about a specific surface, they are not walking back onto it, and the two teams with byes are no further behind than that swap leaves them.
What both quarter-finals did establish is the general shape of the venue. Spin decided one match outright and took most of the wickets in the other. Central carry Saransh Jain, Zeeshan Ansari and Harsh Dubey; South have Shreyas Gopal and T Thyagarajan. Neither squad will be short of options.
And then Chennai
The final is the one match not being played at a training centre. It runs from 6 to 10 September at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, moved to Chepauk so that spectators can actually watch it, and given five days rather than four.