![]() The teams of North Zone and East Zone played against each other in the first match of Duleep Trophy, 1996-97 and the two teams played the match at Delhi from 20-24 November, 1996. The East Zone captain, U Chatterjee won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. The East Zone batsmen played well and scored a moderate total of 276 runs in their first innings. R Sanghvi took 5 wickets for 45 runs on behalf of North Zone in East Zone's first innings. In reply to the first innings total of East Zone, the North Zone batsmen batted extraordinarily and scored a mammoth total of 506 runs in their first innings. The two famous batsmen, V Dahiya (134) and R Nayyar (108) scored two wonderful centuries for North Zone. U Chatterjee took 6 wickets for 115 runs on behalf of East Zone in North Zone's first innings. Trailing by a huge margin of 230 runs, the East Zone batsmen played wonderfully and scored 472 runs in their second innings. Though, the North Zone team needed 243 runs in the second innings to win the match, the team could not do so, as the match's stipulated duration ended when North Zone reached the score of 91-2. The North Zone team won the math for having a lead in the first innings and entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1996-97. ![]() ![]() The second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1996-97 was played between the teams of North Zone and South Zone and the match took place at Faridabad from 27 November-01 December, 1996. The toss of the match was won by the North Zone captain, N Sidhu and he took the decision of batting first in the match. The North Zone batsmen played well and scored a good total of 344 runs in their first innings. The opener, V Rathour became the top scorer for North Zone with a huge 150 runs to his name and A Sharma gave good support to him by scoring 80 runs. The South Zone batsmen could not play that much well in their first innings and they got all out for a score of 286 runs. The skipper, R Singh got the highest individual score of 84 runs in South Zone's first innings and M Prasad also scored 60 runs for his team. Playing with a lead of 58 runs in the first innings, the North Zone batsmen scored a wonderful total of 332 runs in the second innings. Thus, the North Zone team set a target of 391 runs in the second innings for South Zone to win the match. The South Zone batsmen showed a magnificent batting display in their second innings and they successfully achieved the huge target and scored 393 runs for 5 wickets. S Ramesh remained unbeaten on a score of 143 runs and S Sharath scored 140 runs for contributing the most in South Zone's second innings. Thus, the South Zone team entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1996-97 by winning this match with a good margin of 5 wickets. The Central Zone and South Zone teams were involved in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1996-97 and the two teams played the match at Mohali from 04-08 December, 1996. The South Zone team fielded first in the match, as its captain, C Pandit decided so after winning the toss. Being put into bat first by the opponent captain, the Central Zone batsmen played well and scored a moderate total of 264 runs in their first innings. The opener, G Khoda became the top scorer for Central Zone by playing a good knock of 72 runs. B Ramprakash picked up 5 wickets for 85 runs on behalf of South Zone in Central Zone's first innings. While replying to the first innings total of Central Zone, the South Zone batsmen batted well and scored a good total of 225 runs, though failed to surpass the opponent's first innings total. Leading by a huge margin of 39 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone batsmen played wonderfully and scored a huge total of 359 runs in their second innings. R Sapru played extraordinarily to score 161 runs for Central Zone in the second innings. Chasing a huge target of 399 runs to win, the South Zone batsmen faced a lot of troubles and eventually got all out for a moderate score of 237 runs in their second innings. Thus, the Central Zone team won the match with a good margin of 161 runs and also clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1996-97. |