India's first-class domestic season has quietly delivered one of its most one-sided results in years, and the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy now moves straight into the semi-final stage today, with two four-day matches getting underway at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
In the first quarter-final, East Zone bowled out North East Zone twice inside a single innings, winning by an innings and 210 runs. East Zone piled up 467 in their first innings, built on a career-best 167 from Shahbaz Ahmed and 146 from Sudip Kumar Gharami. North East Zone never recovered: they were bowled out for 111 in their first innings, with Abhijit Sarkar taking 5/20, and could only add 146 second time around as Anukul Roy claimed a five-wicket haul of his own to finish the match inside three days.
The second quarter-final was tighter on paper but still decisive. North Zone beat West Zone by 52 runs, with the match built around scores of 251 and 222 for North Zone against 187 and 234 for West Zone. The individual story of the match belonged to West Zone's Abid Mushtaq, whose 5/39 and 4/60 — nine wickets in the match — very nearly dragged his side over the line and earned him Player of the Match honours despite North Zone taking the win.
Because the Duleep Trophy fields six zonal teams rather than eight, Central Zone and South Zone received byes straight to the semi-finals as the tournament's top seeds, sitting out the quarter-final round entirely. That means West Zone's elimination is the headline departure — a squad that featured Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan and Shardul Thakur is out before the final four, while East Zone (led by Ishan Kishan, with Mohammed Shami and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in the squad) and North Zone (led by Arshdeep Singh) advance.
Both semi-finals begin today, August 30, and run as four-day matches: Central Zone (captained by Rajat Patidar) face East Zone in the first semi-final, while South Zone (captained by Tilak Varma) take on North Zone in the second. With the final set for early September at the same venue, these are effectively the tournament's business end — two results away from crowning a champion.
The Duleep Trophy rarely gets the attention of India's international calendar, but it remains one of the most direct routes into national selection conversations — Shahbaz Ahmed's 167 and Abid Mushtaq's nine-wicket haul are exactly the kind of performances that get noticed well beyond the zonal system. For more on the players who've made that jump this year, see our review of India's 2026 season so far.
Follow session-by-session updates from both semi-finals on SportGod's live matches page, and browse more cricket coverage across the international and domestic calendar.
Quarter-final scorecards, player figures and the semi-final schedule are verified against same-day tournament coverage, current as of August 30, 2026.
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