What was smooth sailing for most of the journey turned into a rocky ride towards the end, as South Zone, in pursuit of 215 against North Zone, slipped from 191 for 4 to 213 for 8 in their run chase. Eventually though, Sai Kishore kept his calm and deposited the opposition captain Jayant Yadav for a straight six to steer South to a two-wicket win, and with it, a place in the Duleep Trophy final. South hunted down their target at better than a run a ball in Bengaluru, where there were two lengthy rain delays on the fourth and final day.

Heading into day four, South needed another 194 to win with all ten wickets in hand, and the free-stroking Agarwal dominated his opening stand off 44 with Sai Sudharsan. Vaibhav Arora then removed Sudharsan and R Samarth in quick succession to leave South 59 for 2. That brought their captain Vihari to the crease, and with dark clouds overhead and rain in the air, he got into counterattack mode alongside Agarwal.

Bhui and Varma then added 50 off just 33 deliveries, before Bhui's wicket for 34 opened the floodgates, with Rana and Baltej Singh striking twice each in the space of 3.4 overs. In the end, South just scraped through, with defending champions West Zone waiting for them in a replay of the last Duleep Trophy final.

Central never threatened to chase down 390. They lost their openers, Himanshu Mantri and Vivek Singh, for single-digit scores. Dhruv Jurel and Amandeep Khare took them past 50 before Dharmendrasinh Jadeja had the former stumped for 25.

Rain, though, allowed only six overs in the second session, forcing both captains to shake hands around 2.20pm local time.