East Zone are the new Duleep Trophy champions, winning the 2026 final against South Zone on first-innings lead in Chennai.
Ishan Kishan scored 350 runs across the match — 270 in the first innings and 80 in the second — earning him the Player of the Match award.
East Zone’s first-innings total of 708 was decisive, with South Zone bowled out for 336 in their reply.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shikhar Mohan and Kumar Kushagra all made significant contributions with the bat for East Zone.
The final at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, played from September 6 to 10, ended without an outright result, with East Zone declared winners on first-innings lead.
East Zone’s bowlers also played a key role in restricting South Zone to 336, setting up the platform from which Kishan’s batting sealed the outright title on lead.
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.
Ishan Kishan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
