The Southern Division secured the right to advance to the Duleep Trophy final after defeating the Northern Division by 7 wickets in the semi-final. The match between the Southern and Eastern Divisions is scheduled for September 6th and will take place in Chennai.
The captain of the Southern Division, Tilak Verma, was the hero of the winning match, scoring an unbeaten 116 runs in the first innings. Furthermore, he played a decisive innings in the second innings, scoring 51*, which earned him the 'Player of the Match' award. This match was held at Ground No. 2 of the BCCI Central Competence in Bangalore.
In the first half of the game, the Northern Division scored 195 runs. Among the players of the Northern Division, opener Kamran Iqbal scored the most runs with 76. In response, the virtuoso Kaverappa from the Southern Division took 4 wickets. The Southern Division replied with 312 runs, gaining an advantage of 117 runs.
The Northern Division continued its second innings, reaching 256/7 on the fourth and final day, but the team ultimately scored only 297 runs. This set a target of 181 runs for the Southern Division. At the lower end of the batting order, Anshul Kamboj contributed 36 runs, while Sant Sangwan and Ayush played crucial innings, scoring 76 and 52 runs respectively. MD Nidish from the Southern Division took 5 wickets, scoring 56 runs.
While chasing the target of 181 runs, Ricky Bhuui and N. Jagdishan started the innings brilliantly for the Southern Division, building a partnership of 64 runs in the first wicket stand. The partnership was broken when Gurnoor Bar bowled out Ricky Bhuui, who left the field having scored 42 runs. Immediately after this, Sheikh Rashid was dismissed by Abid Mushtaq.
After the fall of two batsmen at 65 runs, N. Jagdishan stabilized the game and began a key partnership with Tilak Verma. Both players helped the team cross the 100-run mark. The Southern Division lost its third wicket at 102 runs when Jagdishan was dismissed by Abid Mushtaq, scoring 43 runs. Following this, Tilak Verma received support from Ravichandran Samaran.
These two batsmen formed an incomplete partnership of 80 runs, allowing the team to secure the victory. Tilak scored 51 runs, and Samaran played an unbeaten 32 runs off 42 balls. The Duleep Trophy 2026 promises to be very exciting, as the Eastern Division features Vaibhav Suryavanshi in excellent form, and the Southern Division captain, Tilak Verma, continues to demonstrate outstanding performances.