Ayush Badoni scored a brilliant double century (204 not out) as North Zone advanced to the Duleep Trophy semifinals on first innings lead after their quarterfinal match against East Zone ended in a draw on Sunday in Bengaluru. North Zone finished at 658 for four, establishing a massive lead of 833 runs before both teams agreed to end the match.Starting the day at 388 for two, North Zone continued batting and Badoni, who resumed at 56, played a near-perfect innings to reach his hundred in 123 balls with a single. He celebrated modestly with a simple wave of the bat, having reached 99 with a six off Manishi.
Skipper Ankit Kumar, who began the day on 168, fell short of a double century when he was caught by Suraj Jaiswal at mid-on off Mukhtar Hussain’s bowling for 198. Before his dismissal, Ankit and Badoni had put together a 150-run partnership for the third wicket.Badoni then formed a 157-run partnership with Nishant Sindhu, who scored 68 runs off 91 balls with two fours and five sixes. This partnership helped North Zone cross the 600-run mark and extend their overall lead beyond 700.Badoni reached his second first-class double century in 222 balls, achieving the milestone with a boundary. In the final hour, he scored 54 runs off 55 balls. Kanhaiya Wadhawan remained unbeaten on 23.Auqib Nabi from North Zone was named man of the match for his five-wicket haul, including a hat-trick in East Zone’s first innings.
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North Zone captain Ankit explained their batting strategy: “If we wanted, we could have gone for the result because we had upper hand. But we didn’t try because we were in the lead in the first innings. We did very good batting in the first innings and then bowling. We also wanted to keep Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana as much fresh as possible (ahead of the upcoming Asia Cup.) But we made some wrong decisions that we couldn’t click in the batting in the first innings. Otherwise, we could have taken even more upper hand in the first innings.”Injury concerns for Shami and Mukesh
**EDS: RPT CORRECTS DETAILS** Bengaluru: East Zone’s Mohammed Shami and North Zone’s Arshdeep Singh during the fourth and final day of the Duleep Trophy 2025 quarter-final cricket match between East Zone and North Zone, at BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground, in Bengaluru, Karnataka. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak)(PTI08_31_2025_RPT100B)
Mohammed Shami, who bowled 11 overs in North Zone’s second innings, remained off the field despite being seen in his whites before play began. He had not bowled in the last session of the third day either.East Zone captain Riyan Parag explained Shami’s absence: “No, I think he rolled over on his toe and the other spike went over his toe, so that’s why he couldn’t bowl.”Mukesh also did not bowl in the second innings after experiencing a thigh niggle in the first innings.
