![]() The match between the teams of East Zone and North Zone was the first match in Duleep Trophy, 1975-76 and the match was held at Calcutta from 13-16 December, 1975. The captain of East Zone, A Roy won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. His decision got good support from his teammates, as the East Zone batsmen got a moderate score of 252 runs in the first innings. R Saxena scored the highest runs for East Zone in the innings, while Madan Lal took 5 wickets for North Zone in East Zone's first innings. The North Zone batsmen batted well to provide their team a lead in their first innings, as they scored 289 runs, before getting all out. M Amarnath was the highest scorer for North Zone with 99 runs and he got good support from V Lamba, who scored 54 runs. While batting in the second innings with a deficit of 37 runs, the East Zone batsmen did well to get a moderate score of 238 runs, before getting all out. Madan Lal took 4 wickets for 61 runs on behalf of North Zone in East Zone's second innings. Chasing a target of 202 runs in the second innings to win the match, the North Zone batsmen played quite sensibly and achieved the target, after losing only 3 wickets. North Zone scored 205-3 in the second innings, thanks to a wonderful century knock of 106 runs by C Chauhan and won the match with a good margin of 7 wickets. The North Zone team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76 after wining the match. The first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76 was played between the teams of South Zone and Central Zone and the match took place at Bangalore from 13-16 December, 1975. The Central Zone team batted first in the match and got a wonderful total of 331 runs in their first innings. L Singh played a magnificent innings of 124 runs for Central Zone in the first innings and H Singh also played well to score 60 runs to help his team get the huge total on scoreboard. The South Zone batsmen put on a better batting display than their counterparts and scored a bigger total of 348 runs in the first innings. Two of the South Zone batsmen, M Dalvi and B Patel scored individual centuries for South Zone, as they scored 112 and 100 runs, respectively. Playing with a deficit of 17 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone batsmen failed to keep up their batting form in the second innings and got all out for a small score of 174 runs. Chasing a target of 158 runs to win, the South Zone batsmen played wonderfully in their second innings. They achieved the target and scored 161 runs for 1 wicket in the second innings and helped their team clinch a victory of 9 wickets over Central Zone. The South Zone team also reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76. The West Zone and North Zone teams played in the second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76, which was held at Bombay from 19-22 December, 1975. The match saw the North Zone captain, V Lamba winning the toss and deciding to bat first. The North Zone batsmen supported their captain's decision wonderfully and batted nicely to score a good total of 358 runs in their first innings. S Amarnath and R Shukla played well for North Zone, as they scored 58 and 57 runs, respectively in the first innings. The West Zone batsmen failed to play as good as the North Zone batsmen in their first innings and got all out on a score of 231 runs. A Gaekwad scored 56 runs to help his team get the score, though West Zone finished the second innings, 127 runs behind North Zone. The North Zone batsmen were quite charged up with the huge lead of 127 runs over West Zone in the first innings and they increased the lead to 431, by scoring 304-2 in the second innings. C Chauhan and Madan Lal played two wonderful century knocks for North Zone in the second innings. While C Chauhan scored an unbeaten 116 runs, Madan Lal remained not out on a score of 104 runs. The West Zone team started batting in the second innings with a mammoth target of 432 runs to win. Though they played well, they could not get the target, as the match got over, when they reached the score of 227-1. A Gaekwad remained not out on a score of 115 runs in West Zone's second innings. The match ended on a draw and the North Zone team won it for having a lead in the first innings. The North Zone team also got the permission to play against South Zone in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76. The teams of South Zone and North Zone played against each other in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1975-76 and the two teams played the match at Madras from 27-30 December, 1975. The South Zone team batted first in the match, as its captain, S Venkataraghavan decided so after winning the toss. The South Zone batsmen showed a wonderful batting display in the first innings, as they scored a huge total of 390 runs. B Patel made a wonderful century of 105 runs for South Zone and V Krishnaswamy scored 57 runs to make his own contributions to the team's first innings total. Though the North Zone batsmen batted well in their first innings, it was not enough for them to surpass South Zone's first innings total. The North Zone team scored 291 runs in the first innings, thanks to a superb unbeaten century of 122 runs by S Amarnath. In spite of attaining a lead of 99 runs in the first innings, the South Zone batsmen failed to play well in the second innings and got all out for a small score of only 134 runs. R Goel and B Bedi took 5 wickets, each for North Zone to restrict the South Zone second innings to such a low total. Requiring 234 runs to win the match, the North Zone batsmen faced a lot of difficulties in their second innings and got all out for only 196 runs. The South Zone skipper, S Venkataraghavan played the lead role in ending the North Zone second innings before the target by taking 5 wickets for 62 runs. Thus, the South Zone team won the match with a margin of 37 runs to clinch the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1975-76, for the second consecutive time. |