The West Zone team played in the Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 as the reigning champion and all the other four zonal teams in the tournament were eager to take the championship title away from West Zone. The five participating zonal teams that played in the tournament included the likes of Central Zone, North Zone, South Zone, East Zone and West Zone. The teams were selected by the tournament organisers, BCCI, according to their respective geographical locations. The teams were mainly made according to the zonal format that was followed in the Ranji Trophy

The match between the teams of Central Zone and East Zone was the first match of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 and the match was held at Jaipur from 23-25 September, 1977. The East Zone team batted first in the match, as their captain, A Roy decided so after winning the toss. The team responded well to the captain`s decision, as the East Zone batsmen scored a moderate total of 220 runs in the first innings. S Mukherjee became the top scorer for East Zone with 75 runs, while R Hans and Hyder Ali took 4 wickets, each for Central Zone in East Zone`s first innings. The Central Zone batsmen played sensibly in their first innings and get past the first innings total of East Zone to score a good total of 260 runs. M Abdul Hai and P Sharma became the top scorers for Central Zone, with individual scores of 98 and 74 runs. Trailing by 40 runs in the first innings, the East Zone batsmen once again showed one of the poorest batting performances by any side in Duleep Trophy, in their second innings. The East Zone team got all out for a mere score of 72 runs in the second innings and thus, set an easy target of only 33 runs to win for Central Zone. The Central Zone team easily achieved the target of 33 runs without losing any wicket and won the match with a huge margin of 10 wickets to enter into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78.

South Zone and North Zone were the two teams that played against each other in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 and the two teams played the match at Bangalore from 30 September-03 October, 1977. Winning the toss, the skipper of North Zone, B Bedi took the decision of batting first in the match. Bedi got tremendous support from his batsmen in his decision, as the North Zone team scored a huge total of 435 runs in the first innings. The famous batsmen like Y Sharma and S Amarnath scored two wonderful centuries of 173 and 107 runs, respectively in North Zone`s first innings. While replying to North Zone`s mammoth first innings total, the South Zone batsmen failed to get a good score and got all out for 276 runs in their first innings. M Amarnath took 6 wickets for 34 runs on behalf of North Zone to help the team in getting a lead of 159 runs over South Zone in the first innings. In the second innings, the North Zone batsmen scored 229 runs before getting all out and set a target of 389 runs to win for South Zone. E Prasanna took 5 wickets for 46 runs on behalf of South Zone in North Zone`s second innings. The stipulated duration of the match got over when the South Zone team reached the score of 182-8 in the second innings and as a result, the match ended in a draw. The North Zone team was declared as the winner of the match on the basis of its first innings lead and the team entered into Final of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78, as well.

The second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 was played between the teams of West Zone and Central Zone and the two teams played the match at Ahmedabad from 30 September-03 October, 1977. The captain of West Zone, S Gavaskar took the decision of batting first in the match, after winning the toss and he got good support from his batsmen. The star batsmen of West Zone, D Vengsarkar and S Gavaskar played extremely well to score individual centuries. While Vengsarkar scored 175 runs, Gavaskar scored 169 runs to help their team in getting a huge total of 487 runs for 6 wickets in the first innings. A Mankad also played a good innings of 68 runs. The Central Zone batsmen faced a lot of troubles while batting in their first innings and could score only 285 runs, before getting all out. Only V Telang played well for Central Zone in the first innings, as he scored 77 runs. Attaining a huge lead of 202 runs in the first innings, the West Zone team scored 244 runs in the second innings and set a target of 447 runs to win for Central Zone. It was clearly impossible for Central Zone to achieve the target, as there was a shortage of time for them. The stipulated periods of the match ended when the Central Zone reached the score of 158-6 and the West Zone team won the drawn match for having a lead in the first innings. The West Zone team also entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 to play against North Zone.

The teams of West Zone and North Zone played against each other in the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1977-78 and the match took place at Bombay from 09-12 October, 1977. The North Zone skipper, Madan Lal took the decision of fielding first in the match after winning the toss. However, the decision was proved to be a completely wrong one, as the West Zone team scored a huge total of 482 runs, while batting first in the match. The West Zone batsmen like, D Vengsarkar and A Mankad scored their individual centuries and scored 137 and 127 runs, respectively. S Gavaskar also played well to score 89 runs and K Ghavri made his own contribution to the team`s huge total, by playing a knock of 57 runs. The North Zone batsmen played well, while replying to West Zone`s mammoth first innings total, however, their endeavour was not enough to surpass the opponent`s total. The North Zone team scored 324 runs in the first innings. D Parsana took 5 wickets for 80 runs on behalf of West Zone in North Zone`s first innings and helped his team take a lead of 158 runs over North Zone. The West Zone batsmen faced some trouble while batting in the second innings and captain, S Gavaskar wisely declared the innings after reaching the score of 121-6. Chasing a huge target of 180 runs to win, the Central Zone team reached the score of 77-0 before the end of play and the match ended on a draw. The match officials declared the West Zone team as the winner of the match as well as the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1977-78, for having a lead in the first innings.