Ruturaj Gaikwad scored a century for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final against Central Zone on Thursday (September 4).
Central Zone qualified for the semi-final of the 2025 Duleep Trophy after beating North East Zone in the quarters. Up against a West Zone side led by Shardul Thakur, they were asked to field after losing the toss.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, opening for West Zone, hit the first ball of the match, bowled by Khaleel Ahmed, for four, but the left-arm quick had his revenge two balls later, dismissing the India opener. West Zone then lost their other opener Harvik Desai to Deepak Chahar in the fourth over to become 10-2, when Gaikwad arrived to the crease.
Also read: Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinals, live updates: Gaikwad scores ton, Jaiswal, Iyer fall cheaply
Ruturaj Gaikwad scores eighth first-class hundred
With No.3 Aarya Desai, Gaikwad added 82 runs for the third wicket before Desai was dismissed for 39. The CSK captain was then joined by the PBKS captain, Shreyas Iyer, batting at No.5. Iyer hit four boundaries in 28 balls, but couldn't go beyond 25. Gaikwad, meanwhile, carried on from one end even as regular wickets kept falling at the other.
He reached his hundred in the second session of day one, during a crucial sixth-wicket partnership with Tanush Kotian, which stands at 75 at the time of writing and is going strong. Gaikwad has moved well past 100 and is batting on 135, while Kotian has made 29 off 52 balls.
2nd Semi-Final, West Zone vs Central Zone
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- Ball by ball Over
This is Gaikwad's eighth first-class hundred. He came into the match in fine form, having also scored a ton in the Buchi Babu tournament for Maharashtra couple of weeks back.
Before this match, Gaikwad averaged 41.77 in first-class cricket, with a high-score of 195. He has a shot of beating that in this innings and potentially get to a maiden double hundred. There have been two double hundreds in the 2025 Duleep Trophy already, by Danish Malewar (Central Zone) and Ayush Badoni (North Zone) in the quarter-finals.
Gaikwad last played for India in July 2024, and is yet to play Test cricket.
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