Overview

• West Zone reached 363 for 6 after choosing to bat, driven by Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 184 off 206 balls with Tanush Kotian 65* and captain Shardul Thakur 24* at stumps.
• South Zone closed on 297 for 3 with N Jagadeesan unbeaten on 148 from 260 balls, supported by Devdutt Padikkal’s 57 and Tanmay Agarwal’s 43.
• Central’s Khaleel Ahmed removed Yashasvi Jaiswal for 4 in the first over and bowled Shreyas Iyer for 25, with Deepak Chahar also striking early.
• Key absences reshaped both ties: Kuldeep Yadav and Tilak Varma joined India’s Asia Cup plans, Dhruv Jurel was ruled out with dengue, Sarfaraz Khan suffered a quadriceps injury, and Vijaykumar Vyshak failed BCCI fitness tests with Vasuki Koushik coming in.
• North Zone also lacked pacers Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana due to Asia Cup workload management, elevating opportunities for replacements across the Bengaluru semifinals.