 The Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 saw the BCCI making yet another change to the naming of the teams participating in the tournament. Till then, the participating teams in the tournament were named according to their respective zones like the Central Zone, East Zone, West Zone, North Zone and South Zone. The tournament organisers, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) changed the names of the teams to Elite Group A, Elite Group B, Elite Group C, Plate Group A and Plate Group B in Duleep Trophy, 2002-03. The names were changed according to a change in the format of the Ranji Trophy during the same season.
The first match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 was played between the teams of Elite Group A and Plate Group A and the match was held at Chennai from 12-15 March, 2003. The captain of Plate Group A, H Kanitkar won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. He got good support from his batsmen, as the Plate Group A batsmen batted wonderfully and scored a good total of 373 runs in their first innings. In reply to the first innings total of Plate Group A, the Elite Group A batsmen scored a moderate total of 281 runs, before getting all out in their first innings. S Sriram scored a wonderful century of 119 runs to become the top scorer for Elite Group A. Leading by 92 runs in the first innings, the Plate Group A batsmen once again played well and scored a good total of 342 runs in their second innings. Though, Elite Group A team required 435 runs in the second innings to win the match, the stipulated duration of the match got over, when the Elite Group A team reached the score of 102-3 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. The Plate Group A and Elite Group A teams earned, 5 and 3 points, respectively from the drawn match. The teams of Elite Group B and Plate Group B were involved in the second match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 and the match took place at Chennai from 12-15 March, 2003. The captain of Elite Group B, R Gavaskar decided to bat first in the match, after winning the toss. The Elite Group B batsmen played well and scored a good total of 350 runs, while N Hirwani took 6 wickets for 80 runs for Plate Group B. The Plate Group B batsmen gave a good reply to Elite Group B team's first innings total and finished their first innings on a score of 332 runs. A Uniyal bowled well and took 6 wickets for 92 runs Elite Group B. The Elite Group B batsmen batted brilliantly in their second innings and scored a huge total of 434 runs to set a target of 453 runs to win for Plate Group B. A Pagnis became the top scorer for Elite Group B with a wonderful century of 184 runs. However, the match ended in a draw, as its stipulated duration got over when Plate Group B reached the score of 4-0 in the second innings. The match officials awarded the Elite Group B and Plate Group B teams 5 and 3 points, respectively for the match. The match between the teams of Elite Group A and Elite Group C was the third match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 and the match was organised at Secunderabad from 20-23 March, 2003. The Elite Group C skipper, S Das invited the Elite Group A team to bat first in the match, after winning the toss. Being put into bat first, the Elite Group A batsmen played well and scored a good total of 369 runs in their first innings. D Vinay Kumar top scored for Elite Group A with 125 runs to his name, while N Kulkarni took 5 wickets for 104 runs for Elite Group C. The Elite Group C batsmen gave a wonderful reply to the first innings total of Elite Group A and surpassed their opponent's total in their first innings. Elite Group C scored 398 runs in the first innings, thanks to centuries from J Martin (132) and P Dharmani (105). The stipulated duration of the match got over once Elite Group A reached the score of 13-1 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. The Elite Group C and Elite Group A teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the drawn match. The fourth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 saw the teams of Plate Group A and Plate Group B playing against each other at Bangalore from 20-23 March, 2003. Winning the toss, the Plate Group A captain, H Kanitkar decided to bat first and his batsmen scored a moderate total of 247 runs in the first innings. N Hirwani picked up 5 wickets for 71 runs on behalf of Plate Group B. While replying to the first innings total of Plate Group A, the Plate Group B batsmen scored a mammoth total of 527 runs in their first innings and took a lead of 280 runs over Plate Group A. J Arunkumar scored the highest runs for Plate Group B with 178 runs to his name. Trailing by a huge margin of 280 runs, the Plate Group A batsmen failed to play well and got all out for 273 runs in their second innings. N Hirwani took 7 wickets for 129 runs and helped Plate Group B to clinch a victory of an innings and 7 runs in the match and also earn 8 points. The Elite Group A and Plate Group B teams appeared in the fifth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 and the two teams played the match at Bangalore from 27-30 March, 2003. The toss of the match was won by the captain of Plate Group B, J Arunkumar and he decided to bat first in the match. The Plate Group B batsmen continued their wonderful batting form in this match also and scored a mammoth total of 569 runs in their first innings. S Somasundar (153), J Arunkumar (106) and D Bundela (101) scored centuries for Plate Group B in the first innings, while Sarandeep Singh took 8 wickets for 180 runs for Elite Group A. Though the Elite Group A batsmen also played well and scored 469 runs in their first innings, they failed to surpass the first innings total of Plate Group B. D Gandhi (131) and Y V Rao (127) scored centuries for Elite Group A, while N Hirwani took 6 wickets for 182 runs on behalf of Plate Group B. However, the match's stipulated duration got over after Plate Group B reached the score of 185-4 in the second innings. The Plate Group B and Elite Group A teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the drawn match. Elite Group B and Elite Group C were the teams that played against each other in the sixth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03, which was held at Vijayawada from 27-30 March, 2003. The Elite Group B team batted first in the match, as its captain, M Prasad decided so after winning the toss. The decision was a good one, as the Elite Group B batsmen scored a good total of 390 runs in their first innings. N Kulkarni took 5 wickets for 115 runs on behalf of Elite Group C in Elite Group B team's first innings. The Elite Group C batsmen could not play well and scored only 247 runs in their first innings to trail by 143 runs to Elite Group B. S Bahutule took 6 wickets for 41 runs on behalf of Elite Group B. The Elite Group B team declared the second innings on the score of 201-7 and set a target of 345 runs to win for Elite Group C. By the time, the Elite Group C team reached the score of 155-2, the specified period of the match got over. The drawn match saw the Elite Group B and Elite Group C teams earning 5 and 3 points, respectively. 
The seventh match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 was played between the teams of Elite Group A and Elite Group B and the match took place at Bangalore from 03-06 April, 2003. The Elite Group B captain, M Prasad decided to bat first after winning the toss in the match; however, his batsmen failed to play well and scored only 219 runs in their first innings. The Elite Group A batsmen gave a good reply to the first innings total of Elite Group B and scored 362 runs in their first innings to take a lead of 143 runs. S Sriram remained not out on 130 runs for Elite Group A, while S Bahutule picked up 5 wickets for 116 runs for Elite Group B. The Elite Group B batsmen once again failed to play well and got all out for only 220 runs in their second innings. The Elite Group A batsmen chased the target of 77 runs successfully and eventually scored 78 runs by losing only 3 wickets. The Elite Group A team earned 8 points by winning the match with a huge margin of 7 wickets.
The teams of Elite Group C and Plate Group A were involved in the eighth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 and the match was organised at Secunderabad from 03-06 April, 2003. The skipper of Elite Group C won the toss and decided to field first in the match. The Plate Group A batsmen played well and scored a moderate total of 263 runs in their first innings. The Elite Group C batsmen played better than their counter parts and scored a bigger total of 278 runs in their first innings. Playing with a deficit of 15 runs, the Plate Group A batsmen could not play well in their second innings and scored a small total of 182 runs, before getting all out. Thus, the Elite Group C team needed 168 runs in the second innings to win the match and the team eventually scored 172-1 in the second inning. The Elite Group C team won the match by a huge margin of 9 wickets and also earned 8 points. The match between the teams of Elite Group B and Plate Group A was the ninth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 and the match was held at Chennai from 10-12 April, 2003. The Plate Group A skipper, H Kanitkar decided to bat first in the match after winning the toss; however, his batsmen failed miserably and got all out for only 135 runs in their first innings. A Uniyal picked up 5 wickets for only 21 runs on behalf of Elite Group B in Plate Group A team's first innings. While replying to the first innings total of Plate Group A, the Elite Group B batsmen showed a wonderful batting display and scored a huge total of 329 runs in their first innings. Trailing by a huge margin of 194 runs in the first innings, the Plate Group A batsmen batted a bit better in their second innings and scored a moderate total of 244 runs. Thus, the Elite Group B team required only 51 runs in the second innings to win the match and the team eventually scored 53 runs by losing only 1 wicket. The Elite Group B team earned 8 points from the match by clinching a huge victory of 9 wickets. The last and tenth match of Duleep Trophy, 2002-03 was played between the teams of Elite Group C and Plate Group B and the two teams played the match at Kochi from 10-13 April, 2003. The captain of Elite Group C, S Das won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. Das got a wonderful support from his teammates for his decision, as the Elite Group C batsmen played brilliantly and scored a huge total of 426 runs in their first innings. H Badani became the top scorer for Elite Group C by scoring a wonderful century of 129 runs and P Dharmani also played well to score 73 runs. In reply to the first innings total of Elite Group C, the Plate Group B batsmen also played well, but failed surpass their opponents' total. The Plate Group B team scored 322 runs in the first innings, thanks to a century knock of 105 runs by Vijay Bharadwaj. The stipulated duration of the match got over when the Elite Group C team reached the score of 167-7 in the second innings, after attaining a good lead of 104 runs in the first innings. The match ended in a draw and the Elite Group C and Plate Group B teams earned 5 and 3 points, respectively from the match. After the completion of all the league matches in Duleep Trophy, 2002-03, the tournament officials calculated the total points earned by each team. The calculation of the points revealed that the Elite Group C team earned the highest 21 points from the league matches and hence, the Elite Group C team clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 2002-03. |
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