 The Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 was the 35th edition of the tournament, which has already earned a lot of recognition and fame for being one of the most popular and fruitful domestic cricket tournaments in India. The tournament was played on a league format, where all the five regular participating zonal teams played against each other for winning the championship title. There was no knock-out match in the tournament and the team that earned most of the points from the league matches, was decided as the winner of the tournament. The tournament organisers, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selected the teams from five different geographical locations of India. It followed the zonal format of Ranji Trophy while selecting the teams and the teams actually represented their respective zones in Duleep Trophy. As all the teams played with the same objective of winning the championship title, the tournament eventually became a highly competitive one. The cricket enthusiasts of India also liked it very much, as it presented some closely contested matches.
The first match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 was played between the teams of Central Zone and East Zone and the match was held at Alwar from 11-13 October, 1995. The Central Zone captain, P Amre won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. Amre got good support from his batsmen, as the Central Zone batsmen scored a good total of 356 runs in their first innings. Amre scored 152 runs for his team, while Avinash Kumar took 6 wickets for 94 runs, for East Zone. In reply to the first innings total of Central Zone, the East Zone batsmen failed miserably to apply themselves on the crease and got all out for only 154 runs. N Hirwani took 5 wickets for 41 runs on behalf of Central Zone in East Zone's first innings. After being asked to follow on in the second innings by Amre, the East Zone batsmen played a bit better, but got all out for a moderate score of 231 runs. Thus, Central Zone required only 30 runs in the second innings to win the match and the team scored 32 runs, without losing a single wicket. The Central Zone team earned 6 points by winning the match with a huge margin of 10 wickets. The teams of North Zone and South Zone played against each other in the second match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 and the match took place at Nagpur from 11-14 October, 1995. Winning the toss, the South Zone skipper, W Raman invited the North Zone team to bat first in the match. The decision was proved to be a perfect one, as the South Zone bowlers did a great job to restrict North Zone's first innings to a mere score of only 200 runs. While replying to the small first innings total of South Zone, the North Zone batsmen batted wonderfully and scored a huge total of 424 runs in their first innings. A Kumble (111) and the skipper, W Raman (103) scored centuries for South Zone, while A Kapoor took 7 wickets for 144 runs on behalf of North Zone. Playing with a huge deficit of 224 runs, the North Zone batsmen completely failed to bat well in their second innings and they got all out for a tiny score of only 123 runs. As a result, the South Zone team won the match with a huge margin of an innings and 101 runs and also earned 6 points. The South Zone team appeared in the third match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 also and this time, it played against the Central Zone at Bhilai from 21-25 October, 1995. There was no play in the first three days of the match and the match actually started on the fourth day. The toss of the match was won by the captain of South Zone, W Raman and he took the decision of fielding first in the match. Being put into bat first by the opponent skipper, the Central Zone batsmen scored a good total of 373 runs for 6 wickets, before their skipper declared the first innings. However, when the South Zone team reached the score of 234-4 in the first innings, the stipulated duration of the match got over. The match officials awarded 1 point, each to South Zone and Central Zone for the drawn match. 
The match between the teams of East Zone and West Zone was the fourth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 and the match was organised at Nagpur from 21-24 October, 1995. The West Zone team batted first in the match, as it captain, S Sugewakar decided so after winning the toss. The West Zone batsmen could not provide adequate support to their captain's decision, as they got all out for a small score of 197 runs in their first innings. The East Zone batsmen were quite upbeat by their bowlers' performance and they scored a huge total of 551 runs for 8 wickets in their first innings. The East Zone skipper, S Karim remained unbeaten after scoring a magnificent double century of 200 runs and Saurav Ganguly played a wonderful knock of 171 runs for East Zone. After S Karim declared the first innings on 551-8, with a huge lead of 354 runs, the West Zone batsmen showed an even worse performance than the first innings. West Zone could score only 176 runs in the second innings, before losing all the wickets. Thus, the East Zone team won the match with a huge margin of an innings and 178 runs and earned 6 points, as well.
The fifth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 saw the teams of Central Zone and North Zone playing against each other at Bhilwara from 10-12 November, 1995. The Central Zone skipper, R Shamshad won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. It was proved to be a right decision, as the Central Zone batsmen played wonderfully and scored a huge total of 404 runs in their first innings. Y Ghare scored a wonderful century of 122 runs for Central Zone in the first innings. After conceding such huge runs to Central Zone, the North Zone team failed to bat well in the first innings and got all out for a moderate score of 259 runs. Though, the team had a huge lead of 145 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone batsmen failed miserably to play well in their second innings and surprisingly got all out for a petite score of only 67 runs. B Vij took 6 wickets for only 19 runs on behalf of North Zone in Central Zone's second innings. However, the North Zone batsmen also failed to play well in their second innings, while chasing a target of 212 runs and they got all out for 112 runs. Thus, the Central Zone team earned 6 points from the match, by clinching a huge victory of 100 runs. The South Zone and West Zone teams appeared in the sixth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 and the two teams played the match at Alwar from 10-14 November, 1995. The toss of the match was won by the South Zone captain, R Dravid and he took the decision of batting first in the match. The South Zone batsmen responded well to their captain's decision and scored a good total of 313 runs in their first innings, before getting all out. The West Zone batsmen faced a lot of troubles while batting in their first innings and they got all out for a small score of only 181 runs. After attaining a good lead of 132 runs in the first innings, the South Zone batsmen played well in their second innings also and scored 293-3 before Dravid declared the innings. The West Zone batsmen required 426 runs in the second innings to win the match; however, they could not achieve the target and got all out for only 282 runs. Thus, the South Zone team comfortably won the match with a margin of 144 runs and also earned 6 points from the match. The seventh match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 was played between the teams of East Zone and South Zone and the two teams played the match at Lucknow from 19-22 November, 1995. Winning the toss, the South Zone skipper, W Raman decided to bat first in the match, though, he could not get much response from his batsmen. The South Zone batsmen failed to play well and got all out for only 165 runs in their first innings. However, the South Zone bowlers bowled brilliantly and restricted East Zone's first innings to only 159 runs for providing their team a 7 runs lead in the first innings. The South Zone batsmen played much better in their second innings, after attaining a lead of 7 runs over East Zone in the first innings. They scored a good total of 360 runs in their second innings and thus set a target of 368 runs to win for East Zone. P Vaidya took a total of 10 wickets on behalf of East Zone in South Zone two innings. The East Zone batsmen once again failed to play well and got all out for 147 runs in their second innings. Thus, South Zone earned 6 points from the match by winning it with a margin of 219 runs. 
The teams of North Zone and West Zone played against each other in the eighth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 and the match was held at Indore from 19-23 November, 1995. The West Zone team batted first in the match, as its captain, S Dighe decided so after winning the toss. The West Zone batsmen played extremely well and scored a mammoth total of 526 runs in their first innings. A Muzumdar became the top scorer for West Zone with 209 runs to his name and A Kale also scored a wonderful century of 144 runs for West Zone. The North Zone batsmen also played very well in their first innings; however, they could score 371 runs in the first innings. A Sharma scored a wonderful century of 188 runs for North Zone, while S Ankola took 5 wickets for 90 runs, for West Zone in North Zone's first innings. Playing with a lead of 155 runs, the West Zone batsmen scored a good total of 298 runs, before getting all out in their second innings. Chasing a target of 454 runs to win, the North Zone batsmen failed to achieve the target and got all out for a small score of 206 runs in their second innings. The match was won by West Zone with a margin of 247 runs and the team also earned 6 points from the match.
The Central Zone and West Zone teams were involved in the ninth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 and the two teams played the match at Bikaner from 28-30 November, 1995. The captain of Central Zone, P Amre won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. The decision was proved to be a completely wrong one, as none of the Central Zone batsmen could plat well and they got all out for a small score of 127 runs in the first innings. The West Zone batsmen batted wonderfully in their first innings and scored a huge total of 352 runs for taking a huge lead of 225 runs over Central Zone. R Chauhan took 5 wickets for 120 runs on behalf of Central Zone in West Zone's first innings. Trailing by a huge margin of 225 runs, the Central Zone batsmen once again failed to bat well and got all out for a score of 180 runs in their second innings. V Buch took 5 wickets for 55 runs, for West Zone in Central Zone's second innings. Thus, the West Zone team won the match with a wonderful margin of an innings and 45 runs and earned 6 points, as well. The last and tenth match of Duleep Trophy, 1995-96 was played between the teams of East Zone and North Zone and the two teams played the match at Lucknow from 28 November-01 December, 1995. The East Zone skipper, S Karim took the decision of batting first in the match, after winning the toss. The East Zone batsmen failed to response well to their captain's decision, as they got all out for a small score of only 184 runs in their first innings. The North Zone batsmen replied wonderfully to the first innings total of East Zone and they scored a huge total of 381 runs in their first innings. Though the East Zone batsmen batted well while playing with a huge deficit of 197 runs, they could not get a huge score and got all out for 284 runs in their second innings. Thus, the North Zone team required only 88 runs in the second innings to win the match and the team eventually scored 92 runs by losing 2 wickets. The North Zone team won the match with a wonderful margin of 8 wickets and also earned 6 points from the match. After the completion of all the league matches, the tournament officials calculated the points earned by each teams. The calculation revealed that the South Zone team has earned the highest 19 points from the league matches and hence, South Zone was declared as the winner of the Duleep Trophy, 1995-96. |
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