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 The Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 comprised of all the five zonal teams that had been playing in the tournament for all the previous editions of the tournament and the overseas guest team was the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI. The teams were selected by the tournament organisers, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from five different geographical locations of the country. The BCCI named the teams as the East Zone, West Zone, North Zone, South Zone and Central Zone and the teams actually represented their respective zones in the premium domestic cricket tournament of India. All the six teams played in the tournament with a common objective of winning the championship title of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05. The teams also tried their best to achieve the objective and the desperate attempts of the teams eventually made the Duleep Trophy, 2004-05, a highly competitive and enjoyable tournament. The cricket enthusiasts of India also quite liked the tournament, as the high voltage matches presented some wonderful cricketing performances from the cricketers.
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 second match of the Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 was played between the teams of North Zone and West Zone and the match took place at Lucknow from 15-17 February, 2005. Winning the toss, the captain of West Zone, Z Khan took the decision of batting first in the match. The West Zone batsmen could not bat that much well in their first innings and they scored a moderate total of 201 runs, before getting all out. A Nehra picked up 6 wickets for 57 runs on behalf of North Zone in West Zone's first innings. In reply to the first innings total of West Zone, the North Zone batsmen failed to surpass the total and got all out for a score of 196 runs in their first innings. Batting in the second innings with a small lead of only 5 runs, the West Zone batsmen scored exactly the same score of 201 runs that they scored in the first innings. A Mishra took 5 wickets for 52 runs on behalf of North Zone in West Zone's second innings. Chasing a target of 207 runs to win, the North Zone batsmen played wonderfully and eventually scored 208 runs by losing only 1 wicket. Y Singh remained not out on 100 runs and Gautam Gambhir also remained unbeaten on 79 runs. Thus, the North Zone team earned 4 points by winning the match with a huge margin of 9 wickets.
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.
South Zone and West Zone were the teams that played against each other in the fourth match of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 and the two teams played the match at Hyderabad from 22-24 February, 2005. The toss of the match was won by the South Zone skipper, R Dravid and he took the decision of batting first in the match. The decision was not proved to be a right one, as the South Zone batsmen failed to play well and got all out for only 187 runs in their first innings. R Powar bowled brilliantly and took 7 wickets for 44 runs on behalf of West Zone in South Zone's first innings. The West Zone batsmen batted a bit better than their counter parts and scored a moderate total of 207 runs in their first innings. Playing with a deficit of 20 runs in the first innings, the South Zone batsmen played well in the second innings and scored 241 runs, before getting all out in their second innings. The West Zone required 222 runs in the second innings to win the match and the West Zone batsmen eventually scored 223 runs after losing only 1 wicket. S Parab remained unbeaten on 106 runs and I Pathan scored 61 runs to help West Zone clinching a victory of 9 wickets and also earn 4 points from the match.
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 sixth match of Duleep Trophy, 2004-05 was played between the teams of North Zone and South Zone and the match was held at Indore from 01-04 March, 2005. The South Zone skipper, VVS Laxman won the toss and took the decision of batting first in the match. The South Zone batsmen batted very well in their first innings and scored a good total of 338 runs, before getting all out. The opener, R Uthappa scored the highest of 80 runs for South Zone and S Sharath (60), D Karthik (59) and VVS Laxman (55) also made their own contributions to the team's first innings total. The North Zone batsmen played outstandingly while replying to the first innings total of South Zone and they scored a mammoth total of 500 runs in their first innings, before getting all out. Y Singh became the top scorer for North Zone with 110 runs to his name and V Sehwag also played well to score 79 runs for his team. L Balaji bowled brilliantly for South Zone and picked up 6 wickets for 121 runs in North Zone's first innings. Playing with a deficit of 162 runs in the first innings, the South Zone batsmen played well in their second innings and scored 305 runs, before getting all out. S Sriram scored 80 runs and S Asnodkar scored 74 runs and helped South Zone setting up a target of 144 runs to win for North Zone. The North Zone batsmen played well in their second innings too and eventually scored 146 runs for 3 wickets to win the match by a huge margin of 7 wickets. Y Singh and D Mongia remained unbeaten on 60 and 52 runs, respectively and helped North Zone to earn 4 points from the match.
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.
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