Duleep Trophy 2023 Quarter-Finals: Here is the preview
One of India's most prestigious domestic tournaments, the Duleep Trophy 2023 will get underway on June 28. East Zone, West Zone, North Zone, Central Zone, South Zone, and North-East Zone are the six teams participating in the event. While West Zone and South Zone have already secured one semi-final spot apiece, the remaining four sides will tussle in the quarter-finals. Here is the preview.
A look at the match-ups
Central Zone and East Zone will cross swords in Quarter-final 1. The winner will advance to the first semi-final to meet defending champions West Zone. The second quarter-final will see North Zone taking on North-East Zone and the winner will join South Zone in the second semi-final. Both quarter-final games will get underway on June 28 with the action beginning at 9:30 AM.
Here are the venues
The KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur will host Quarter-final 1 between Central Zone and East Zone. The second knock-out clash would see North Zone vs North-East Zone cross swords at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Owing to the rainy weather, pacers might get some assistance with the new ball in both games. Spinners would come into play later on.
A look at their previous records
West Zone are the most successful team in Duleep Trophy history with 19 titles. North Zone are the next on the list with 18 titles. South Zone own 12 Duleep Trophy titles. Central Zone clinched the trophy six times in 16 final appearances. While East Zone have returned with two titles, North-East Zone are yet to taste the glory.
East Zone squad
East Zone: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Shahbaz Nadeem (vice-captain), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, A Porel (wicketkeeper), K Kushagra (wicketkeeper), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel.
North Zone squad
North Zone: Mandeep Singh (Captain), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Prabhsimran Singh (wicketkeeper), Ankit Kumar, AS Kalsi, Harshit Rana, Abid Mushtaq, Jayant Yadav, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sandhu, Sidharth Kaul, Vaibhav Arora, Baltej Singh.
Central Zone squad
Central Zone: Shivam Mavi (Captain), Upendra Yadav (vice-captain and wicketkeeper), Vivek Singh, Himanshu Mantri, Kunal Chandela, Shubham Sharma, Amandeep Khare, Rinku Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Dhruv Jurel, Saurabh Kumar, Manav Sathar, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur.
North-East Zone squad
North-East Zone: Rongsen Jonathan (Captain), Nilesh Lamichaney (vice-captain), Kishan Lyngdoh, Langlonyamba, A.R. Ahlawat, Joseph Lalthankhuma, Prafullamani (wicketkeeper), Dippu Sangma, Jotin Pheiroijam, Imliwati Lemtur, Palzor Tamang, Kishan Sinha, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Rajkumar Rex Singh, Nagaho Chishi.
Key performers for Quarter-Final 1
East Zone skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran smoked 798 at 66.50 in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy. His teammate and pacer Ishan Porel played 10 games in the competition and returned with 27 wickets at 25.40. Central Zone's Rinku Singh, who enjoyed a dream IPL 2023, averages 59.89 in First-Class cricket. His skipper Shivam Mavi scalped 19 wickets in four 2022-23 Ranji Trophy matches at 16.78.
Key performers for Quarter-Final 2
North Zone batter Prabhsimran Singh hammered 537 runs at 53.70 in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy. His teammate Sidharth Kaul snapped 22 wickets in seven 2022-23 Ranji Trophy matches at 27.86. Harshit Rana returned with 21 wickets in five games in the competition at an average of 26.66. North-East Zone skipper Rongsen Jonathan picked seven wickets in last year's Ranji at 48.
