 The Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 was played between the five zonal teams, coming from the Ranji Trophy. Two of the zonal teams first played against each other for securing a berth in the Semi-Finals of the Duleep Trophy. Then, the winning team competed with the other three teams in the Semi-Finals and Final, with a view of winning the Duleep Trophy.
The first match of the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 was played between the teams of South Zone and North Zone and the two teams played the match at Madras from 30 September-02 October, 1961. The 3-day match saw the South Zone winning the toss and deciding to bat first. The South Zone team played well in their first innings and scored a good total of 302 runs, thanks to a wonderful century from AG Milkha Singh. In reply to the total of 302 runs made by South Zone, the North Zone team faced a terrible damage in their batting order and got all out to only 48 runs in their first innings. None of the North Zone batsmen could play well in front of the South Zone bowlers and as a result, they had to follow on, in the second innings of the match. G Kasturirangan and V Kumar did most of the damage to the North Zone team by taking 4 wickets, each in the innings. The North Zone faced a lot of troubles while following in the second innings also and only P Bhatia could play well for North Zone in the second innings. He scored 52 runs in the innings, while North Zone's second innings ended with 166 runs. Thus, the South Zone team convincingly won the match by a huge margin of an innings and 88 runs to enter into the Final of the Duleep Trophy. The teams of Central Zone and East Zone played against each other in the first Semi-Final match of the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 and the match was held at Bombay from 08-10 October, 1961. The Central Zone captain KM Rungta won the toss and decided to bat first in the match and the decision was well supported by his teammates. As, all the top order batsmen of Central Zone like M Sharma, S Singh and S Durani played well, Central Zone scored 287 runs in the first innings. The East Zone team could not play that well in their first innings, while replying to 287 runs of Central Zone. Only the batsmen like P Poddar and R Kenny played good knocks on behalf of East Zone and the team eventually scored 174 runs in the first innings. As the match was already into the third day by the time East Zone completed its first innings, the match officials declared it as a drawn one. The officials also declared the Central Zone as the winner of the match and allowed it to play against West Zone in the second Semi-Final, on toss of a coin. The second Semi-Final of the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 was played between the teams of West Zone and Central Zone. The two teams played the match at Baroda from 13-15 October, 1961 and the Central Zone team batted first in the match. The toss of the match was won by the West Zone skipper, N Contractor and he invited the Central Zone team to bat first in the match. Batting first, the Central Zone team secured a good total of 330 runs in their first innings, thanks to two century knocks played by S Durani and V Manjrekar. The West Zone team also played well in their first innings and took a lead of 30 runs, surpassing the 330 runs of Central Zone. C Borde scored a century for West Zone and as K Indrajitsinhji and R Nadkarni also played well, West Zone scored 360 runs in the first innings. The Central Zone batting line-up collapsed in the second innings and as most of the batsmen failed to play well, Central Zone scored only 148 runs in the innings. Only S Durani and S Singh played well for Central Zone in the innings and the team set a target of 119 runs for West Zone to win the match. The West Zone team faced no difficulties in achieving the target, as N Contractor and R Surti played well for them. West Zone eventually scored 121 runs after losing only 2 wickets and thus won the match by 8 wickets to enter into the Final of Duleep Trophy. The West Zone and South Zone teams appeared against each other in the Final of the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 and the 4-day match took place at Bombay from 20-23 October, 1961. The South Zone skipper, A Kripal Singh won the toss and decided to bat first in the match, though his team failed to give a good performance in the first innings. A brilliant bowling performance by P Umrigar, who took 6 wickets for only 52 runs, helped West Zone to restrict South Zone's first innings to only 175 runs. The South Zone captain, A Kripal Singh scored the highest 73 runs for his team in the first innings. In reply to South Zone's 175 runs, the West Zone team played quite well in their first innings and scored a good total of 234 runs. C Borde remained not out for West Zone after scoring 82 runs in the innings and that helped West Zone to take a 59 runs lead over South Zone in the first innings. The South Zone team failed to bat well in the second innings and as they got all out to a mere score of only 139 runs, the West Zone team needed only 80 runs to win the match. The two West Zone openers, S Adhikari and N Contractor remained unbeaten till the end of the match and West Zone scored 82 runs without losing a wicket. Thus, the West Zone team won the Final match by a huge margin of 10 wickets and became the winner of the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62. |
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Duleep Trophy, 1961-62
| West Zone clinched the championship title in the Duleep Trophy, 1961-62 by beating South Zone in the Final. |
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