Central Zone showed their domination on the second day of the final of the 2025 season of the Duleep Trophy at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, thanks to the twin centuries from captain Rajat Patidar and Yash Rathod, who remained unbeaten on 137 runs by the end of the day’s play to shoulder a lead of over 230 runs. 

Yash Rathod, the Vidarbha left-handed batter, went on to stretch his knock to 194 runs in 286 balls, decorated by 17 boundaries and a pair of sixes at a strike rate of 67.83. His concentration finally broke when Gurjapneet Singh broke through his stumps. His overnight partner, Saransh Jain, clubbed 69 runs in 193 balls.

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Later, in the first innings, Deepak Chahar also smacked a fine contribution of 37 runs at a strike rate of over 75, with the help of three fours and a couple of sixes. They went past the 500-run mark quite easily in 145.1 overs.

Duleep Trophy 2025 Final Round: All Scores from Day 3

Both Ankit Verma and Gurjapneet picked up four wickets each in a long spell of hot conditions. Central Zone had already taken a lead of over 350 runs in the first innings, which was anticipated to be enough for them to lift the title. But the South Zone’s openers showed fight after two days of fielding when the tired body and feet start to dance in the middle.

Tanmay Agarwal and Mohit Kale, both openers, got starts in their innings, but they failed to convert them into big scores. The latter claimed 38 runs with seven boundaries. Smaran Ravichandran and Ricky Bhui remained unbeaten in the end with respective scores of 37 and 26 as they pushed themselves to 129/2 to reduce the trail to 233 runs.

It will still be an acid test for the South Zone as the game heads to the fourth day of the fixture. Jain and Kuldeep Sen picked up those wickets for Central Zone as the umpires took early stumps due to bad light.

Duleep Trophy 2025 Final Round: All Scores from Day 3

South Zone- 129/2 (Smaran Ravichandran 37*, Kuldeep Sen 1/22) & 149/10 (Tanmay Agarwal 31, Salman Nazir 24, Saransh Jain 5/49, Kumar Kartikeya 4/53) trail Central Zone 511 (Yash Rathod 194, Rajat Patidar 101, Gurjapneet Singh 4/124) by 233 runs at Stumps on Day 3.