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 The Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 was comprised of five zonal teams, all the regular participants of the tournament. The organisers of the tournament, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selected the teams from five different geographical locations of India. The teams included the likes of South Zone, North Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone and they gave their best efforts to clinch the championship title in the tournament. The West Zone team was the reigning champion in the tournament and the team started playing as the top favourite for winning the championship title.
The first match of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 was played between the teams of South Zone and Central Zone and the match was held at Hyderabad from 25-27 December, 1970. Winning the toss, the South Zone captain, S Venkataraghavan decided to bat first in the match and his decision was proved to be a right one. The South Zone batsmen played well in the first innings and scored a huge total of 394 runs and M Jaisimha made most of the contribution to the team's total. Jaisimha played a wonderful knock of 175 runs in the first innings and he got good support from P Belliappa, who scored 75 runs. The Central Zone batsmen faced a lot of difficulties in front of the two star spinners of South Zone, B Chandrasekhar and E Prasanna and they could score only 253 runs in their first innings. Chandrasekhar and Prasanna took 5 and 3 wickets, respectively for South Zone in Central Zone's first innings. Among the Central Zone batsmen, only S Durani showed some resistance and scored 52 runs to become the top scorer for his team. Having a lead of 141 runs in the first innings, the South Zone captain, S Venkataraghavan made a brave decision by declaring the second innings on a score of 64-7. The target for Central Zone to win the match was 206 runs and the stipulated period of the match concluded when Central Zone reached the score of 114-1. The South Zone team was declared as the winner of the match on basis of its lead in the first innings and the team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71.
The East Zone and North Zone teams were involved in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 and the two teams played the match at Calcutta from 01-03 January, 1971. The captain of North Zone, B Bedi took the decision of fielding first in the match after winning the toss. Put into bat first, the East Zone batsmen showed a good performance and scored 313 runs in their first innings, before getting all out. Almost all the top order batsmen of East Zone got good scores in the innings and A Roy became the top scorer with 69 runs. P Poddar also played a good innings of 65 runs for East Zone. In reply to East Zone's first innings total of 313 runs, the North Zone batsmen got a moderate score of 257 runs in their first innings. S Hyder Ali and S Amarnath became the top scorers for North Zone in the first innings, with scores of 74 and 66, respectively. The East Zone team was leading over North Zone by a good margin of 56 runs in the first innings and the team declared its second innings after reaching the score of 19-2. Thus, the target for North Zone to win the match was 176 runs and the team could score 121-2 before the match's stipulated duration got over. The East Zone team entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 by winning this match on the basis of its lead in the first innings.
The teams of West Zone and South Zone appeared against each other in the second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 and the match took place at Bombay from 02-04 January, 1971. Winning the toss, the West Zone captain, C Borde invited the South Zone team to bat first in the match. While batting first, the South Zone team secured a good score of 371 runs in the first innings, thanks to a wonderful century by H Jayantilal. Jayantilal scored 134 runs for his team and as P Krishnamurty also scored his half century, the South Zone team was able to get the score of 371 runs in the first innings. The West Zone batting line-up collapsed in the first innings, in front of some brilliant bowling by the South Zone bowlers and the team got all out for only 186 runs. Abid Ali took 5 wickets for 65 runs on behalf of South Zone in West Zone's first innings. Having a good lead of 185 runs in the first innings, the South Zone team declared its second innings after reaching the score of 112-5 and thus set a target of 288 runs to win for West Zone. The West Zone team failed to achieve the target before the end of play and the match ended on a draw, after West Zone reached the score of 65-2. The South Zone team reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71, as it won the match for having a lead in the first innings.
The East Zone and South Zone teams played against each other in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71 and the match was held at Bombay from 09-12 January, 1971. It was the first ever Final match for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy and the match saw the East Zone captain, R Saxena winning the toss and deciding to bat first. His decision was a right one, as the East Zone batsmen batted well and scored a good total of 382 runs in their first innings. The famous batsman, G Bose made a wonderful century of 113 runs and R Saxena also played well to score 90 runs in the first innings. D Govindraj took 5 wickets for South Zone in East Zone's first innings. The South Zone batsmen never got demotivated with the huge total scored by East Zone and they displayed a wonderful batting performance in their first innings. The South Zone team got a huge score of 451 runs in the first innings, thanks to two magnificent centuries by M Jaisimha and Abid Ali. Jaisimha scored 131 runs and Abid Ali played an innings of 120 runs for South Zone in the first innings. A Baig also played well to score 80 runs in the innings. Trailing by a margin of 69 runs, the East Zone batsmen failed to show a good batting performance in the second innings and they got all out for a mere score of only 130 runs in the innings. Thus, the South Zone team needed only 62 runs to win the match and they easily achieved the target without losing even a single wicket. The South Zone team won the match by a huge margin of 10 wickets and also became the winner of Duleep Trophy, 1970-71.
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