When East Zone takes the field for the first ball of the Duleep Trophy 2026 final at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, it will be looking to retrace the footsteps of history.
The last time East Zone won the title was at the beginning of the 2012/13 season, at the very same venue in Chennai. It claimed a nail-biting victory over Central Zone on first-innings lead.
Fourteen years on, it remains the last Duleep Trophy final East Zone has played.
The match was the second Duleep Trophy final played between East Zone and Central Zone that year.
For the 2011/12 season, the competition was tagged on to the end of the domestic season. The following year, it was moved to the front of the calendar as a season-opener. As a result, East Zone first won the trophy in Indore in February 2012 before defending its title eight months later in Chennai.
Anustup Majumdar, a domestic veteran for Bengal and one of the seven players to feature in both finals for East Zone, said winning the first final as a relatively unfancied side helped the team take those learnings into the second.
“When we played the second final, we were more familiar with the responsibilities we had for the team.
But when we played the first final, we didn’t have any expectations,” he remembered to Sports stars. “We played bindaas (in a carefree manner).”“We won the first final by playing like a family and enjoying ourselves. The second time around, we played like that again but we knew what planning we had to do going into the match.”
Majumdar explained that the family feeling came through having played together consistently, saying, “Generally the East Zone players came from Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha, and we had been playing together through the Under-16 and U-19 days.
So we all knew each other, and playing together was fun.”The final itself was heavily beset by rain. The first five sessions were washed out, effectively turning the match into a first-innings shootout. The wet conditions also made matters difficult for East Zone when it was finally inserted to bat.
“It was a challenging track,” said Majumdar. “Because of the consistent rain for two-three days, the ball was sticking in the pitch, not skidding on, that’s why they (Central Zone) chose to bowl first. The ball was spinning and stopping.
The outfield had also become slow because of the rain.”In those tricky conditions, East Zone put up 232 in its first innings, led by Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten 100 from 252 deliveries.
“His innings was so gritty, it was a chanceless 100,” Mujumdar recalled. “To do that on that track, against Murail Karthik and Jalaj Saxena, among the best domestic spinners, I’ve seen very few innings as good as that.”
However, it seemed that Jaggi’s century would go in vain. Central Zone openers Tanmay Srivastava and Vineet Saxena got off to a strong start.
Iresh Saxena and Basant Mohanty chipped away, but a 50-run stand between Srivastava and Mahesh Rawat took Central Zone to 147 for four approaching Tea on the final day.
With one over to go until the break, East Zone skipper Natraj Behera threw the ball to Majumdar, who had 21 First-Class wickets at the time, to send down some part-time leg-spin.
“It wasn’t in his mind at all. Sometimes after seeing for a long time a captain makes the part-timer bowl, but actually, he had never seen me bowl,” Majumdar recalled with a chuckle. “I asked him to give me the ball, and Ashok Dinda backed me up and suggested I could bowl.”
Perhaps it was a move inspired by providence. Three balls into the over, Majumdar induced Rawat to edge to slip. He claimed three more wickets after the resumption, pushing East Zone towards a first-innings lead and, with it, a second consecutive Duleep Trophy title.
“A part-time bowler comes looking for wickets only, he doesn’t see the runs,” Majumdar said of his mindset.
“We were starting to feel that we were going to lose the match when that partnership (between Srivastava and Rawat) was going on. After the wicket, we began to believe that the match could still turn,” he said. “Then after Tea, we got Praveen Kumar out, and that’s when we realised that we could win this match. The ball was coming out of the hand well.”
It is a match that remains special to the 42-year-old.
“I’ll always remember that match differently. I’ve won a few matches with the bat, but to bowl such a spell in a Duleep Trophy final is a dream, and it happened for me.”
But for the members of those East Zone sides, the impact stretched beyond winning a zonal tournament.
“When we won the first time, we had won for the first time in a long time, and people would call you Duleep Trophy champion.
But the thing is that very few players from East Zone play for India. The positive impact that it had was that it gave the belief that players from the team could play for India, as Mohammad Shami (who played the 2011/12 final) and Ashok Dinda did. It created that atmosphere,” Majumdar explained. “Hopefully it can happen this time.”
The scores
East Zone — 1st innings: 232.
Central Zone — 1st innings: Tanmay Srivastava c Jaggi b Iresh 94, Vineet Saxena c Mohanty b Iresh 22, Mohammad Kaif lbw b Iresh 2, Robin Bist c Jadhav b Mohanty 2, Ashok Menaria c Behera b Iresh 8, Mahesh Rawat c SP Gautam b Majumdar 24, Jalaj Saxena c Tiwary b Iresh 7, Bhuvneshwar Kumar lbw b Majumdar 0, Praveen Kumar c Iresh b Majumdar 1, Murali Kartik c Tiwary b Majumdar 17, Ishwar Pandey (not out) 3; Extras(b-1,w-1,nb-7) 9; Total (in 83.5 overs): 189.
Fall of wickets: 1-68 (Saxena), 2-74 (Kaif), 3-76 (Bist), 4-97 (Menaria), 5-147 (Rawat), 6-164 (Jalaj), 7-165 (Bhuvneshwar), 8-167 (Praveen), 9-178 (Srivastava).
East Zone bowling: Dinda 17-5-42-0, Basant Mohanty 16-5-29-1, Iresh Saxena 25-6-58-5, Alok Mangaraj 10-5-10-0, Biplab Samantray 6-2-12-0, Natraj Behera 2-0-8-0, Anustup Majumdar 7.5-0-29-4.
East Zone – 2nd innings: Dheeraj Jadhav (not out) 2, S.P. Gautam (not out) 4; Extras (w-2) 2; Total (for no loss in five overs): 8
Central Zone bowling: Praveen Kumar 3-1-5-0, Jalaj Saxena 2-0-3-0.
Man-of-the-match: Ishank Jaggi.
