Patience and precision: how Kartikeya turned the Duleep final on its head

When Central Zone captain Rajat Patidar won the toss in the Duleep Trophy final, he was clear in his decision to bowl first. "Very simple," he said at the toss. "There are overcast conditions, it is a fresh wicket and has a good grass cover on it."

It had rained relentlessly in and around Bengaluru for most of Wednesday evening, which kept the surface at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence under covers. There was a thick band of cloud overhead on the morning of the final and the pitch had a greenish tinge to it.

But despite the favourable conditions, none of the three Central Zone fast bowlers, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen and Aditya Thakare were incisive enough. There was lateral movement both off the surface and in the air. They got the occasional plays-and-misses and lbw appeals, but the consistency was missing. The South Zone openers, Tanmay Agarwal and Mohit Kale, also to their credit, left the ball reasonably well.

The run rate was under two an over but with the three quicks going wicketless in their opening spells, Patidar switched to spin, bringing on left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya in the 16th over.

Kale, on 9 off 49 balls at the time, thought this was his chance to score. Kartikeya's final ball of his first over was a gentle tossed-up delivery at 87.3kph, pitching on middle and going on with the arm. Kale's T20 instincts took over as he eyed a cross-batted swipe. But he missed and saw his middle stump pegged back. A few overs later, Kartikeya sent back left-hander R Smaran with a similar ball. A flighted delivery on middle, which Smaran tried to hoick across the line, managed a top-edge and square leg took an easy catch.

Kartikeya then delivered what was arguably the ball of the day. From around the wicket, he pitched a flighted delivery on leg stump, got it to dip and then spun it sharply past South Zone captain Mohammed Azharuddeen, turning him into an S and rattling his stumps.

On the opening morning of the Duleep Trophy final, where the fast bowlers were expected to do the damage, South Zone's top-order had been wrecked by Kartikeya. And he did so by just bowling orthodox left-arm spin and landing the ball in the right areas. By lunch on the opening day, South Zone had been reduced to 64 to 4.

"When I saw the wicket, I thought I might not get any help in the beginning because it was the first day," Kartikeya said after the first day's play. "I just wanted to land the ball in the right areas and not leak any easy runs.

"I realised that keeping a tight economy rate should be my top priority, so that the batter comes under pressure and makes mistakes. I just wanted to do my basics right and not try too much. My main aim was to bowl with patience, because that will eventually benefit us."

With his Madhya Pradesh team-mate Saransh Jain also joining in on the wicket-taking fun, Central Zone ran through the South Zone batting unit. Kartikeya picked one more wicket, trapping Gurjapneet Singh lbw, to finish with 4 for 53 in 21 overs. By tea on the opening day, South Zone had been bowled out for 149.

Two years ago, Kartikeya was the architect of MP's maiden Ranji Trophy title win, finishing as their leading wicket-taker with 32 wickets. He followed it up with another 30-plus wicket season in 2022-23 and finished the 2023-24 season with 41 wickets.

His 2024-25 Ranji Trophy numbers were also decent: 28 wickets in six matches, but with the emergence of Harsh Dubey and Manav Suthar, two left-arm spin allrounders, Kartikeya was pushed down the pecking order. He didn't make it to the original Central Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy and only got a chance in the final with Dubey and Suthar leaving for India A's series against Australia A.

But instead of sulking at not being picked in the initial squad, Kartikeya is "taking this as an opportunity".

"I have no control over the selection of the team, but I have control over my bowling, and I want to do that well," Kartikeya said. "I was waiting for this chance for a long time. My mindset was clear that whenever I bowl, be it at the start, middle or end, I have to pick wickets."

A traditional left-arm fingerspinner, Kartikeya added legspin to his bowling arsenal around three years back. He initially used it only in white-ball cricket, but in the last two years, he has started to bowl the legbreak in red-ball cricket. He bowled a few legbreaks on Thursday as well, and while he didn't get a wicket, he knows "if nothing is working, I also have the legspin in my armoury."

"Legspin is a useful tool to have on any surface," Kartikeya says. "I get a lot of benefit from that. Earlier, I used to bowl legspin only in white-ball cricket, but in the last two years, I have started bowling legspin in red ball cricket. Whenever I get a flat track, where left-arm spin is not that useful, I bowl legspin."

Central Zone have won the Duleep Trophy just once, in 2014 against South Zone. Incidentally, it was a left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza, who fashioned their title win with seven wickets. Eleven years later, another left-arm spinner has helped Central Zone gain the upper hand on the first day. Can he lead them to a second Duleep Trophy title?