![]() The teams of Central Zone and East Zone played against each other in the first match of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 and the match was held at Gwalior from 15-17 February, 2005. The East Zone skipper, L Shukla won the toss and decided to bat first in the match. The East Zone batsmen could not give good support to their captain's decision, as they got all out for a small score of 194 runs in their first innings. S Sanyal became the top scorer for East Zone with 62 runs to his name, while JP Yadav took 5 wickets for 29 runs on behalf of Central Zone. Though the bowlers restricted East Zone's first innings cheaply, the Central Zone batsmen failed to capitalise on that. They could score only 189 runs in their first innings, before getting all out and as a result, East Zone got a 5 runs lead in the first innings. The East Zone opening bowler, S Paul bowled outstandingly and picked up 6 wickets for 50 runs. The East Zone batsmen once again failed to play well in their second innings and got all out for only 131 runs to set an easy target of 136 runs to win for Central Zone. JP Yadav once again took 5 wickets for 34 runs in East Zone's second innings. The Central Zone batsmen played well while trying to achieve the target of 136 runs and they eventually scored 139 runs for 4 wickets in their second innings. Thus, Central Zone won the match by 6 wickets and also earned 4 points. ![]() The overseas guest team of the tournament, Bangladesh Cricket Board XI (BCB XI) played its first match against East Zone and the match was the third match of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05. The match took place at Nagpur from 22-24 February, 2005 and the captain of BCB XI won the toss and decided to field first in the match. Being put into bat first by the opponent captain, the East Zone batsmen played wonderfully and scored a huge total of 454 runs in their first innings. S Ganguly top scored for East Zone with 170 runs to his name and L Shukla also played well to score 123 runs for his team. While replying to the first innings total of East Zone, the BCB XI batsmen failed miserably and got all out for a tiny score of only 142 runs in their first innings. S Paul picked up 6 wickets for 45 runs on behalf of East Zone in BCB XI's first innings. The BCB XI was asked to follow on in the second innings by the East Zone captain and the batsmen could score only 163 runs, before getting all out. Thus, the East Zone team won the match with a huge margin of an innings and 149 runs and also earned 5 points. ![]() The Central Zone and BCB XI teams were involved in the fifth match of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 and the two teams played the match at Delhi from 01-04 March, 2005. The Central Zone team batted first in the match, as its captain, JP Yadav decided so after winning the toss. The Central Zone batsmen gave a good response to their captain's decision, as they scored a good total of 351 runs in their first innings. S Abbas Ali became the top scorer for Central Zone with 122 runs to his name and D Bundela also played well to score 83 runs. The BCB XI batsmen could not play well while replying to the first innings total of Central Zone and they got all out for only 146 runs in their first innings. After attaining a huge lead of 205 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone batsmen scored 230 runs in their second innings and set a target of 436 run to win for BCB XI. Aftab Ahmed picked up 7 wickets for 39 runs on behalf of BCB XI in Central Zone's second innings. The stipulated duration of the match got over by the time, BCB XI reached the score of 199-6 in the second innings and the match ended in a draw. The Central Zone team earned 2 points from the drawn match, while BCB XI remained pointless. ![]() The Central Zone and North Zone were the teams that played against each other in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 and the two teams played the match at Nagpur from 08-11 March, 2005. The captain of Central Zone, M Kaif won the toss in the match and took the decision of fielding first. Being put into bat first by the opponent captain, the North Zone batsmen showed a poor batting performance in their first innings and got all out for a petite score of only 104 runs. JP Yadav picked up 5 wickets for 26 runs on behalf of Central Zone and caused most of the damages to the North Zone batting line-up. The Central Zone batsmen failed to capitalise on the advantageous position that their bowlers put the team and they also failed to get a good score. They could score only 133 runs in their first innings, before getting all out, as all the North Zone bowlers bowled with perfect line and length. Trailing by a small margin of 29 runs, the Central Zone batsmen once again failed to play well and got all out for a score of only 169 runs in their second innings. Thus, the North Zone batsmen required only 141 runs in their second innings to win the match and they eventually scored 142 runs after losing only 1 wicket. The opener, S Bangar remained not out on a score of 62 runs and M Kaif also remained unbeaten on 48 runs to help his team clinch a huge victory of 9 wickets in the match. The North Zone tam also clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 by beating Central Zone in the Final. |