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The Duleep Trophy, 1964-65 saw the participation of five zonal teams, selected by the BCCI from five different geographical zones of India. The BCCI named the teams as the Central Zone, East Zone, North Zone, South Zone and West Zone and all the teams played with the same objective of winning the championship title. The West Zone team was the hot favourite for winning the title, as it won the first two editions and also became the joint winner in the third edition of Duleep Trophy. However, the other teams were not willing to leave a single inch to the West Zone and tried their best to win the title in the tournament. The tournament saw a tough fight between the teams.
The North Zone and Central Zone teams played against each other in the first match of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65 and the match took place at Delhi from 24-26 October, 1964. The captain of North Zone, Nawab of Pataudi won the toss and decided to bat first in the match. The batsmen of North Zone played well and scored a total of 246 runs in the first innings. Y Chowdhury became the top scorer for North Zone in the innings by playing a good knock of 63 runs. The other batsmen like Akash Lal and R Saxena also made their own contributions to the team's first innings total. C Joshi took 5 wickets for 68 runs for Central Zone in the first innings of North Zone. In reply to the 246 runs made by North Zone, the Central Zone team faced some troubles early in their first innings. However, as V Manjrekar played wonderfully and made a century of 113 runs, the Central Zone team eventually scored a total of 249 runs in their first innings. The North Zone team played in the second innings with a deficit of 3 runs in the first innings. The captain of North Zone, Nawab of Pataudi made a brave decision, when he declared the second innings after scoring 156 runs for 3 wickets and set a target of 153 runs to win, for Central Zone. However, the Central Zone team could not achieve the target before the end of play and eventually scored 108 runs for 2 wickets in their second innings. The match officials declared the Central Zone team as the winner of the match, as it had a lead in the first innings. The team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65.
The Central Zone team played against the South Zone team in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65 and the match was held at Hyderabad from 14-16 November, 1964. The Central Zone skipper, V Manjrekar decided to bat first in the match after winning the toss and his decision was proved to be a right one. The Central Zone batsmen played extremely well in the first innings and scored a huge total of 413 runs to put their team into a strong position. H Singh was the star batsman for Central Zone, as he played a wonderful innings of 210 runs. A Shukla also played a good knock of 61 runs to help Central Zone get the huge total in the first innings. The South Zone team scored 265 runs in their first innings, while replying to the 413 runs made by Central Zone. V Subramanya and S Mani were the chief contributors for South Zone in the first innings by scoring 82 and 62 runs, respectively. Having a huge lead of 148 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone team declared their second innings after scoring 156 runs for 1 wicket. Chasing a target of 305 runs to win, the South Zone team had a lot of troubles in their second innings and eventually scored 184 runs by losing 7 wickets, before the end of the play. The match ended on a draw and the match officials declared the Central Zone team as the winner for having a lead in the first innings. The Central Zone team also entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65, after winning this match.
The second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65 was played between the teams of East Zone and West Zone and the two teams played the match at Calcutta from 04-06 February, 1965. The toss of the match was won by the West Zone skipper, C Borde and he decided to bat first in the match. The batsmen of West Zone proved their skipper's decision to be the perfect one, as they batted brilliantly and scored a huge total of 493 runs in their first innings. The famous batsman, A Wadekar played the anchor role for West Zone in the innings, as he scored a double century of 229 runs. V Bhosle also made a century of 110 runs in the innings to help his team get the huge total. The East Zone team faced some huge troubles while batting in the first innings and got all out to a small score of only 182 runs. None of the East Zone batsmen could play well in the innings and B Gupte became the star bowler for West Zone by taking 6 wickets for 74 runs. After being forced to follow on, the East Zone team showed a better performance in the second innings and scored 311 runs, before the end of the stipulated duration of the match. The West Zone team won the drawn match for having a lead in the first innings and also entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65.
The teams of West Zone and Central Zone appeared in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1964-65 and the two teams played the match at Bombay from 13-15 February, 1965. Both the teams were quite optimistic about winning the championship title and both gave their best efforts to achieve the aim. Winning the toss, the Central Zone captain, G Sunderam invited the West Zone team to bat first in the match. The West Zone team made good utilisation of the chance of batting first in the match and scored a mammoth total of 555 runs in their first innings. F Engineer and V Bhosle were the stars for West Zone, as the two batsmen played individual knocks of 142 and 100 runs, respectively in the first innings. The other batsmen like C Borde and R Nadkarni also played well to add some more runs to the team's total. The Central Zone batsmen were quite shocked with the huge total scored by West Zone in the first innings and they got all out to a mere score of only 135 runs in their first innings. Nadkarni took 5 wickets for 16 runs for West Zone in the first innings of Central Zone. The West Zone skipper, C Borde made the Central Zone team to follow on in their second innings and Central Zone's batsmen played a bit better in the second innings. S Durani made a century of 119 runs for Central Zone in the second innings. However, as none of the other batsmen could play extraordinarily, Central Zone's second innings ended on a score of 331 runs. Thus, the West Zone team once again clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1964-65, by beating Central Zone with a huge margin of an innings and 89 runs.
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