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In a star-studded Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal between West Zone and Central Zone, all eyes were on Shreyas Iyer following the T20 Asia Cup 2025 snub, but he departed after getting a good start. Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed got the big fishes Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal but Ruturaj Gaikwad rescued West Zone on Day 1 of the semifinal with his eighth first-class century.
Returning after recovering from an injury and some game time in Buchi Babu invitational tournament 2025, Gaikwad completed his century from 131 balls in the second session of Day 1’s play against Rajat Patidar-led Central Zone.
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The 28-year-old walked in to bat in the fourth over after Khaleel trapped Jaiswal in front of the stumps in first over and Deepak Chahar got rid of Harvik Desai in the fourth. Gaikwad shared an 82-run partnership for the third wicket with Aarya Desai. After Aarya was knocked over for an 84-ball 39 by Harsh Dubey towards the end of first session, Iyer walked in to bat.
Iyer got off to a good start but got bowled by left-arm pacer Ahmed. He hit four fours in his 28-ball 25. Shams Mulani could not convert a start into big score either as he got stumped for a 27-ball 18 off Saransh Jain's bowling. Tanush Kotian joined Gaikwad in the middle as the latter completed his century from 131 balls.
Earlier, Shardul Thakur won the toss and opted to bat first.
West Zone Playing XI -
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Aarya Desai, Shreyas Iyer, Harvik Desai (wk), Shams Mulani, Shardul Thakur (c), Tanush Kotian, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Tushar Deshpande.
Central Zone Playing XI -
Aayush Pandey, Upendra Yadav (wk), Danish Malewar, Rajat Patidar (c), Yash Rathod, Shubham Sharma, Harsh Dubey, Saransh Jain, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Thakur.
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