|
 In the Duleep Trophy, 1983-84, the North Zone team was the reigning champion and the team also started the tournament as the top favourites. The tournament saw the participation of five zonal teams that were selected by the tournament organisers, BCCI from five different geographical locations of India. The teams were named as the Central Zone, East Zone, West Zone, North Zone and West Zone and they were the regular participants of the tournament. The teams actually represented their respective zones in the Duleep Trophy.
The first match of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84 was played between the teams of Central Zone and South Zone and the two teams played the match at Jamadoba from 06-09 January, 1984. The toss of the match was won by the Central Zone skipper, S Rao and he decided to bat first in the match. The Central Zone batsmen responded to their captain's decision quite well and batted wonderfully to score a huge total of 375 runs in the first innings. All the top seven batsmen of Central Zone got good starts in their first innings and made their own contributions to the total. P Shastri played the highest individual innings of 71 runs for Central Zone and S Mudkavi scored 62 runs. While replying to the first innings total of 375 runs by Central Zone, the South Zone batsmen scored one of the highest team totals in the history of Duleep Trophy in their first innings. They scored a mammoth total of 623 runs in their first innings, before getting all out. Mohammad Azharuddin played a magnificent double century knock of 226 runs to become the top scorer for South Zone. A Jabbar also played a wonderful knock of 105 runs and helped his team get a huge lead of 248 runs over Central Zone in the first innings. The Central Zone batsmen showed yet another wonderful batting display in their second innings and scored 320 runs for 6 wickets before the end of play. S Chaturvedi scored a wonderful century of 115 runs for his team. However, as the match's stipulated duration was over by that time, the match ended in a draw. The match officials declared the South Zone team as the winner of the match for having a lead in the first innings. The South Zone team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84.
The East Zone and North Zone teams played against each other in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84 and the match was held at Cuttack from 12-14 January, 1984. Winning the toss, the East Zone skipper D Doshi took the decision of batting first in the match and got good support from his batsmen. The East Zone batsmen played well and scored a moderate total of 251 runs in the first innings, before getting all out. K Dubey played a wonderful century knock of 105 runs and A Mitra also played well to score 57 runs for East Zone in the first innings. C Sharma took 5 wickets for 65 runs on behalf of North Zone in East Zone's first innings. The North Zone batsmen showed a good batting display, while replying to the first innings total of East Zone and scored a huge total of 392 runs in their first innings. Y Sharma became the top scorer for North Zone with 123 runs, while Randhir Singh took 5 wickets for East Zone in North Zone's first innings. Trailing by a huge margin of 141 runs, the East Zone batsmen failed to play well in their second innings and scored only 164 runs, before getting all out. Thus, the North Zone team needed only 24 runs in the second innings to win the match and they easily achieved the target and scored 26 runs, without losing even single wicket. The North Zone team won the match by a huge margin of 10 wickets and also reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84.
The teams of South Zone and West Zone appeared against each other in the second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84 and the match took place at Jamshedpur from 12-14 January, 1984. The South Zone team batted first in the match, as its captain, S Viswanath decided so after winning the toss. The South Zone batsmen secured a moderate total of 224 runs in their first innings, though most of them failed to convert a good start to a big score. R Kulkarni caused most of the damage to the South Zone batting line, as he took 6 wickets for 58 runs for West Zone in South Zone's first innings. The West Zone batsmen played wonderfully in their first innings, while replying to South Zone's first innings total and they scored a huge total of 473 runs in their first innings. The two famous West Zone batsmen, A Gaekwad and S Patil played two brilliant century knocks of 131 and 108 runs, respectively. They also helped their team in getting a huge lead of 249 runs over South Zone in the first innings. The South Zone team batted in the second innings with a deficit of 249 runs and though they tried hard, they failed to bat well. They could score only 235 runs in the second innings, before getting all out. Thus, the West Zone team won the match with a huge margin of an innings and 14 runs and also reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84 to play against North Zone.
The West Zone team played against North Zone in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1983-84, which was held at Cuttack from 17-20 January, 1984. After winning the toss, the captain of North Zone, Madan Lal took the decision of batting first in the match. The decision was proved to be the prefect one, as the North Zone batsmen scored a huge total of 401 runs in the first innings. The opener, S Khanna scored a wonderful century of 146 runs for his team and he got good support from A Malhotra, who scored 70 runs. The West Zone batsmen also played well in their first innings, while replying to North Zone's huge first innings total, however, they could not surpass the opponent's total. They scored 343 runs in their first innings, thanks to a wonderful century by A Gaekwad. M Gunjal also played well to score 59 runs for West Zone. C Sharma bowled outstandingly for North Zone in West Zone's first innings and picked up 7 wickets for only 83 runs. The North Zone team batted in the second innings with a good lead of 58 runs over West Zone and the team scored 283 runs for 7 wickets, before the end of play. As the stipulated duration of the match got over and the match ended in a draw, the match officials declared the North Zone team as the winner of the match. The North Zone became the winner for having a lead in the first innings and the team also clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1983-84, for the second consecutive time.
|
