The Central Zone in the Ranji Trophy, 1977-78 was comprised of a number of 5 teams and the teams were coming from the Central region of India. The teams included the likes of Madhya Pradesh, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha and they played against each other in the zonal level for becoming one of the toppers in the zone. Getting a place in the knock out level of the tournament was also the objective of the teams and the teams like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan eventually became successful to achieve this aim. These two teams got the permission to play against the top teams of the other zones, in the knock out level of the tournament, for the championship title.

The Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1977-78, started with the match between the teams of Madhya Pradesh and Railways and the two teams played the match at Ujjain from 28-30 November, 1977. The match officials declared the match as an abandoned one without even a single ball was bowled and they also awarded the Madhya Pradesh and Railways teams 2 points, each for the match. The teams of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan met against each other in the second match of the zone and the match was held at Agra from 03-05 December, 1977. The match remained drawn during the stipulated duration and the Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the match. The third match of the zone saw a clash between the teams of Vidarbha and Railways at Nagpur from 03-05 December, 1977. The drawn match saw the Railways and Vidarbha teams earning 5 and 3 points, respectively from it.

The match between the teams of Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha was the fourth of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1977-78 and the match took place at Moradabad from 09-11 December, 1977. This was another drawn match and the Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the match. The next match of the zone saw a clash between the teams of Rajasthan and Railways at Delhi from 09-11 December, 1977. The Rajasthan team played wonderfully in the match and clinched a victory of 7 wickets for earning 8 points from the match. The Railways team also earned 3 points from the match. The Rajasthan team appeared in the next match of the zone also and this time, it played against the Vidarbha team at Jaipur from 14-16 December, 1977. The match saw the Rajasthan team winning by a huge margin of an innings and 182 runs and also earning 8 valuable points from it.

There was a clash between the teams of Uttar Pradesh and Railways in the seventh of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1977-78. The match took place at Saharanpur from 15-17 December, 1977 and it saw the Uttar Pradesh team clinching a victory of 8 wickets and also earning 8 points from it. The next match of the zone involved the teams of Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha and the match was played at Indore from 19-21 December, 1977. The drawn match saw the Madhya Pradesh team earning 5 points and Vidarbha earning 3 points from it. The teams of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan appeared against each other in the next match of the zone at Ajmer from 25-27 December, 1977. The Madhya Pradesh team played well in the closely contested match and clinched a narrow victory of 4 wickets to earn 8 valuable points from it. The Madhya Pradesh team was a part of the last of the Central Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1977-78 also and the team played the match against the Uttar Pradesh team at Varanasi form 07-09 January, 1978. The Uttar Pradesh team beat the Madhya Pradesh team by 7 wickets and earned 8 points from the match.