The final of the Duleep Trophy saw Central Zone win by a clear margin of nine wickets against North Zone within three days. Duleep Trophy though saw its fair number of stars all lined up to prune and shine ahead of the crucial series against Pakistan. North Zone were bowled out for 104 runs in first innings, Yadav picking up 5 wickets. Reetinder Sodhi with the top scorer with twenty-seven runs. Central Zone nosed ahead slightly with 133 and surprisingly only two players featured in double figures. While N.V. Ojha played for fifty-five runs, Mohammad Kaif contributed twenty-eight. Gagandeep Singh and Sodhi picked up three wickets apiece.

Opener RS Ricky was the toast of the second innings with thirty-seven. Sangram Singh, Mishra, and Amit Bhandari got decent starts but failed to push the North Zone total into a more challenging target for the Central Zone and were bowled out in the second innings for 169. Harvinder Singh and Bangar picking up three wickets each to disrupt the North's proceedings. Sanjay Bangar and N.V. Ohja survived the two deliveries before play ended on the second day. But the third day saw Central Zone wrap up a well earned Duleep Trophy. Bangar featured prominently with sixty-two against his name and Kaif making forty-eight towards the end to seal the victory.

In the first match North Zone won the contest against West Zone by nine wickets. West managed 201 in both innings. North though recovered from conceding five run lead to chalk a win with Gambhir on 79 and Yuvraj on a 100. Nehra picked up 6 wkts for North. Central Zone started well in the second match at Gwalior and much in similar fashion to North Zone with modest first innings totals but N.V. Ohja, Mohammad Kaif highlighted their presence very early. Central Zone's Yadav stole the limelight with a twin five wicket haul in both innings.

East Zone overwhelmed Bangladesh by an innings and 149 runs in the third match with Sourav Ganguly's 170 and LR Shukla's 123 in the first innings, setting Bangladesh on the back foot very early with 454 on board.

West Zone fared better against South Zone at Hyderabad winning by nine wickets. Only Y. Venugopal Rao managed thirty-seven in South Zone's first innings total of 187 with Powar striking not once but seven times to put South Zone under immense pressure. In reply West Zone scored 207 with NK Patel leading the way with forty-three. But Anil Kumble was preparing for bigger battles with four wickets to his name as did Vinay Kumar. Sachin Tendulkar's contribution was only four and not an ideal batting practice scenario. South Zone played better in the second innings to chalk 241, once again Venugopal Rao, the batting star with seventy-nine but that was quickly done away with with S.S. Parab scoring a century and Pathan contributing sixty-one for his part sent at one down.

In the fifth match between Central Zone and Bangladesh Cricket Board XI, Bangladesh managed to draw the match but only by four wickets. Central piled up 315 in their first innings, with S. Abbas Ali scoring 122 and D. Bundela making eighty-three. Bangladesh's reply was well below par with just 146 on board. Sanjay Bangar missed out a century by four runs but Bangladesh's resistance in terms of forty plus runs came from the likes of Nafees Iqbal, Alok Kapali and Monjural Islam Rana to help Bangladesh to a decent draw.

The final league match between North Zone and South Zone proved a more high- scoring contest. South Zone notched up 338 with contributions from Uttappa, S. Sarath, K.K.D. Karthik and V.V.S. Laxman. But North Zone built 500 runs in their first innings and zoomed further.