East Zone won the Duleep Trophy 2026 final on first-innings lead over South Zone, ending a 13-year wait for the title at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
The match ended without an outright result, with East Zone’s first-innings total of 708 proving decisive after South Zone were bowled out for 336 in reply.
Captain Ishan Kishan was the standout performer, scoring 270 in the first innings and 80 in the second, an aggregate of 350 runs that earned him the Player of the Match award.
Abhimanyu Easwaran (72), Shikhar Mohan (85) and Kumar Kushagra (101) also made key contributions to East Zone’s dominant first-innings total.
Teenage prospect Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was part of the title-winning East Zone squad, gaining valuable experience in a high-stakes domestic final.
East Zone’s title win ends a 13-year wait for the trophy, their last Duleep Trophy triumph having come well over a decade ago.
Ishan Kishan’s aggregate of 350 runs across both innings — 270 and 80 — is among the most dominant individual performances in a Duleep Trophy final.
Abhimanyu Easwaran (72), Shikhar Mohan (85) and Kumar Kushagra (101) all made significant contributions to East Zone’s massive first-innings 708.
South Zone were bowled out for 336 in reply to East Zone’s first innings, leaving them 372 runs behind and facing an uphill task for the remainder of the match.
The Duleep Trophy is decided on first-innings lead when a match doesn’t produce an outright result within the scheduled days, as was the case in this final.
The final was played at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, running from September 6 to 10.
Ishan Kishan’s Player of the Match award recognised his rare feat of scoring a double-century and a half-century in the same first-class match.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the teenage batting prospect, was part of East Zone’s title-winning squad, gaining valuable first-class experience in a high-stakes final.
Ishan Kishan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
