Duleep Trophy: Anshul Kamboj turns saviour with bat, smashes 60 from No.9 against West Zone

In a series of unexpected events, pacer Anshul Kamboj made an impact with the bat during the Duleep Trophy 2026, delivering a counter-attacking knock for North Zone from the lower order. Coming to bat at No.9 the pacer smashed 60 off 52 balls, striking five fours and as many sixes along the way. Kamboj finished as North Zone's leading run-scorer and played a key role in pushing their total to 251. Ayush Badoni was the other major contributor with the bat, amassing 51 runs.

Anshul Kamboj saves North Zone in Duleep Trophy

North Zone were looking at a disappointing total when Kamboj went to bat, having slipped to 161/7 against West Zone with their recognised batters already back in the pavilion. The pacer took an aggressive route and added another 90 runs for the final three wickets. He first built together a valuable 48-run partnership with Abid Mushtaq, who scored 19, before adding 11 alongside Arshdeep Singh for the ninth wicket. Kamboj then joined hands with Sunil Kumar for a 31-run last-wicket stand, helping North Zone recover from a difficult place.

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Kamboj targets Deshpande and Kotian

Kamboj turned the tables around with an attacking mindset against Tushar Deshpande and Tanush Kotian, hitting four sixes and a boundary across their overs to complete his fifty and push North Zone beyond the 250-run mark. His counter-attack was impressive considering Deshpande and Kotian were West Zone's standout bowlers, sharing eight wickets between them. Of Kamboj's 60 runs, as many as 50 came through boundaries, noting the attacking nature of his innings. The 25-year-old Haryana cricketer also recorded only the second fifty of his first-class career, surpassing his previous best of an unbeaten 51.

Tough position for West Zone

In response, West Zone endured a tough start, as the opening duo of Prithvi Shaw and Harvik Desai got out on cheap scores of 22 off 21 and 3 off 17 respectively. At the end of the day, Musheer Khan stayed unbeaten on 3 off 17 and had Shivalik Sharma, who stayed not-out on 0 off 1 delivery.