The Duleep Trophy, 1989-90 saw the participation of all the five regular zonal teams. The teams were selected by the tournament organisers, BCCI from five different locations of India. The teams were the East Zone, North Zone, West Zone, South Zone and Central Zone.

The Central Zone and East Zone teams started the proceedings of the tournament, as they played against each other in the first match of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90. The two teams played the match at Madras from 25-28 December, 1989 and the Central Zone skipper, G Sharma decided to bat first in the match, after winning the toss. It was a great decision taken by Sharma, as the Central Zone batsmen showed their real class and talent and scored a huge total of 641 runs in their first innings. The two Central Zone openers, Yusuf Ali Khan and U Radhakrishnan laid a fantastic foundation to Central Zone`s first innings, as they made a wonderful opening partnership of 226 runs. Khan played a wonderful knock of 131 runs and Radhakrishnan scored 125 runs for his team. As the other batsmen like P Amre (106) and S Khandkar (71) also played well, the Central Zone successfully scored such a huge total in the first innings. Though, the East Zone batsmen tried their best to surpass the first innings total of Central Zone and played well, they could not do so in their first innings. They scored a good total of 400 runs in their first innings, before getting all out. G Sharma and P Vaidya took 5 and 4 wickets, each for Central Zone in East Zone`s first innings. Leading by a huge margin of 200 runs in the first innings, the Central Zone batsmen reached the score of 129-2 in their second innings, when the match`s stipulated duration got over. The match ended in a draw and the Central Zone team was adjudged as the winner for having a lead in the first innings. The Central Zone team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90.

The Central Zone played against North Zone in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90 and the match was held at Vishakhapatnam from 30 December, 1989 - 02 January, 1990. Winning the toss, the captain of Central Zone, G Sharma decided to bat first in the match. The Central Zone batsmen carried forward their wonderful form of the first match in this match also and scored a huge total of 628 runs in their first innings. P Amre made the highest contribution to the team`s total by scoring a magnificent double century of 240 runs. R Sapru and S Khandkar also played well to score 93 and 73 runs, respectively. The North Zone batsmen also played well while replying to the huge first innings total of Central Zone and they scored 434 runs in their first innings. A Sharma and K Bhaskar Pillai were the premium contributors for North Zone with two superb innings of 117 runs and 113 runs, respectively and G Singh also played well to score 95 runs for his team. The stipulated duration of the match got over when the Central Zone team reached the score of 12-1 in the second innings. The Central Zone team won the drawn match on the basis of its lead in the first innings and it also reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90.

The teams of South Zone and West Zone appeared against each other in the second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90 and the two teams played the match at Bangalore from 30 December, 1989 - 02 January, 1990. The match saw the South Zone captain, M Azharuddin winning the toss and deciding to bat first in the match. The decision was well supported by the South Zone batsmen, as they played wonderfully and scored a huge total of 665 runs in their first innings. All the South Zone batsmen played well in the first innings, while V Chandrasekhar and R Singh became the top scorers with 146 runs and 141 runs, respectively to their names. In spite of conceding such a huge total to South Zone, the West Zone batsmen never got demotivated and scored a huge total of 465 runs in their first innings. R Parikh scored a wonderful double century of 218 runs for West Zone and D Vengsarkar also played nicely to score 123 runs for his team. However, the match`s stipulated duration got over by the time West Zone`s first innings was finished and the match ended in a draw. The South Zone team reached the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90 by winning this match on the basis of its lead in the first innings.

The Final of Duleep Trophy, 1989-90 was played between the teams of South Zone and Central Zone and the match took place at Secunderabad from 05-10 January, 1990. Winning the toss, the South Zone skipper, M Azharuddin took the decision of batting first in the match and he was well supported by his batsmen. The South Zone batsmen batted well and put on a huge total of 448 runs in their first innings. The opener, V Chandrasekhar became the top scorer for South Zone with 120 runs to his name and W Raman also played wonderfully to score 96 runs in South Zone`s first innings. The Central Zone batsmen played according to their merit and talent in their first innings and scored a good total of 345 runs, though the score was less than that of South Zone`s first innings. The Central Zone opener, U Radhakrishnan got the highest individual score of 133 runs for his team and he got good support from S Khandkar, who scored 86 runs. S Raju bowled brilliantly for South Zone and took 6 wickets for 127 runs in Central Zone`s first innings. The South Zone batsmen played much better in their second innings than their first innings and scored a mammoth total of 527 runs. The skipper, M Azharuddin became the top scorer for his team in the second innings with a score of 184 runs to his name. R Singh also played wonderfully to score a brilliant hundred of 128 runs to help South Zone set a huge target of 631 to win for Central Zone. However, the Central Zone batsmen failed to achieve the target in their second innings and got all out for a score of 308 runs. Though P Amre tried his best, but his innings of 113 runs could not help Central Zone in getting the target. Thus, the South Zone team won the match with a huge margin of 322 runs and clinched the championship title in Duleep Trophy, 1989-90.