The Duleep Trophy tournament enters a crucial phase on Thursday. The outcome of the two matches to be played - South Zone vs East Zone at Agartala and North Zone vs Central Zone at Delhi - could have a vital bearing on which team will emerge champions.

Of course, North Zone could make the final round of matches, commencing on February 1, absolutely inconsequential with a victory over Central. They are comfortably perched on top of the points table with 18 points from three matches. A win over Central would give them eight points, pushing their final tally to 26. It would be a mark which the other four teams in the fray cannot hope to reach. West Zone, who are not playing this round, have nine points from three matches and cannot possibly hope to catch up with North Zone. The same goes for the other teams South, Central and East, all of whom have currently played two matches. While South and Central have eight points, East Zone have but five. Competitive interest in the final round would however remain if North Zone get only five points or three points from the New Delhi game. In this scenario, South Zone will remain in contention for the title should they defeat East Zone.

A draw with a first innings lead will take North Zone to 23 points. A tally of three points would push their aggregate to 21. If South Zone manages to defeat both East and Central - which it meets in its last match - they have a theoretical chance to surpass North. In this scenario, South Zone will finish with 24 points.

North's confidence level must be on a high, particularly after their last game in which they routed East Zone by 237 runs inside three days. They will also have the home advantage. Other factors in their favour include the form of their batsmen. Skipper Vikram Rathour, Virender Shewag, Dinesh Mongia, Akash Chopra, Vijay Dahiya and Yuvraj Singh have all been among the runs. But in a batsman oriented tournament, perhaps the performance of the competition has come from their medium pacer Aashish Nehra. The former Indian seamer finished with match figures of ten for 90 against East Zone, including a deadly spell of seven for 14 in the first innings.

North Zone however may not have things their own way. For Central Zone too have batsmen in form. Jai P Yadav, skipper Amay Khurasiya and Md Kaif have all registered tall scores. But the bowling has been harshly treated.

South Zone should start favourites at Agartala. East Zone started well in gaining first innings points against Central thanks in the main to Rohan Gavaskar's timely 146. But they fared badly against North Zone and cannot be in a very confident frame of mind. South Zone on the other hand have fared better. They conceded the first innings lead to North Zone but came back strongly by taking first innings points against West Zone. The match was highlighted by a fourth wicket record stand of 409 runs between skipper Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. While Dravid got 188, Laxman scored 217, his tenth century in ten domestic first class games. Only in the previous match against North Zone he scored 179. He really is a batsman to be feared. South Zone also have the better bowling attack and this could prove decisive.

© CricInfo