North Zone’s Ayush Badoni smashed 13 boundaries and three maximums on his way to a double ton against East in their Duleep Trophy match at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on August 31, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J
As green, sprawling and state of the art the BCCI’s new Centre of Excellence is, it is not so full of life.
The 40-acre campus is situated nearly 40 kilometres away from the city centre, is in the middle of an industrial cluster and is fortified to the extent that every little movement, including that of the media personnel, is tailed.
The last day’s play in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal between North Zone and East on Sunday mimicked this gloomy setting as the contest petered out to a drab draw.
North, having secured a first-innings lead of 175 runs, progressed to the semifinals, where it will take on South Zone from Thursday. The other last-four clash will be between West and Central.
North started the final day a massive 563 runs in the green but chose to bat on. Skipper Ankit Kumar, from an overnight 168, missed out on a double-century (198, 321b, 19×4, 1×6) after being caught at mid-on trying a pull off pacer Mukhtar Hussain.
But Delhi batter Ayush Badoni was not to be denied, notching up his second First Class double-hundred (204 n.o., 223b, 13×4, 3×6).
However, so dull were the proceedings that the 25-year-old did not even celebrate his ton, which he brought up with a six straight down the ground and a sharp single.
It didn’t help that East Zone was two bowlers short — Mukesh Kumar was injured and Mohammed Shami, according to captain Riyan Parag, had hurt his toe.
The consequence was that part-timers Parag and Utkarsh Singh bowled 60 second-innings overs and conceded 269 runs as North declared at 684 for four, half an hour before tea, to bring the curtains down.
“We could have gone for an [outright] result, but we didn’t try because we had the first-innings lead,” Ankit said after the match. “We also wanted our bowlers to be fresh, especially with Arshdeep [Singh] and Harshit [Rana] going away to play for India.”
The scores: North 405 in 93.2 overs & 658/4 decl. in 146.2 overs (Ankit Kumar 198, Yash Dhull 133, Ayush Badoni 204 n.o., Nishant Sindhu 68) drew with East 230 in 56.1 overs; PoM: Auqib Nabi.
Central 532/4 decl. in 102 overs & 331/7 decl. in 80.3 overs drew with North East 185 in 69.3 overs & 200/6 in 58 overs (Jehu Anderson 64, Rongsen Jonathan 60); PoM: Danish Malewar.
Published – August 31, 2025 06:34 pm IST
