ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2009

India in 2008/09 India, by far the most populous of the major cricketing nations and, on current evidence, well on the way to becoming the most important commercially too, hosted 105 first-class matches. The Australians played four Tests and a first-class match, while England played two Tests. ‘A’ sides from Australia and New Zealand played two first-class matches each. India achieved a memorable triumph by winning an excellent series against Australia by two Tests to nil after some outstanding performances on both sides. This was Australia’s first series defeat since the 2005 Ashes. India followed up with a one-nil victory against England in a tour marred by the terrorist outrage at Mumbai. The centrepiece of Indian domestic first-class cricket remains the venerable Ranji Trophy, contested first in 1934/35 and every season since. The Trophy involved 88 matches in 2008/09. The format has varied over the years, but this season the 27 competing teams were divided into an Elite Group of 15, with the remaining teams forming the Plate Group. Each Group was then separated into A and B divisions. Each of the four divisions played a round-robin league. In the Plate, the winner of each division played the runner-up in the other, and the two winners of these games joined the top three teams from each division of the Elite Group in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals. From this point the Trophy was decided on a knockout basis. Mumbai were worthy champions. After heading Elite Group A by a relatively narrow margin, they powered their way through the knockout stages and won the final against Uttar Pradesh by 243 runs. The remaining first-class fixtures were: one match in the Irani Trophy (previous season’s Ranji champions (Delhi) v the Rest of India); four matches in the Duleep Trophy (knockout competition between the five zonal teams); and one match for the Mohammad Nissar Trophy (2007/08 Ranji champions v 2007/08 Quaid-e-Azam champions). Ranji Trophy 2008/09: Final tables Elite Group A P W L DWF DLF BP Adj Pts Quot 5 0 3 1 1 Mumbai 7 5 0 1 1 2 0 31 1.741 2 Gujarat 7 4 1 2 0 3 0 29 1.593 3 Saurashtra 7 3 2 2 0 2 0 23 1.401 4 Delhi 7 2 0 2 3 1 0 20 1.094 5 Punjab 7 2 3 0 2 0 0 12 0.800 6 Hyderabad 7 0 3 3 1 0 0 10 0.809 7 Orissa 7 1 4 1 1 0 0 9 0.640 8 Rajasthan 7 0 4 0 3 0 0 3 0.538 Elite Group B P W L DWF DLF BP Adj Pts Quot 5 0 3 1 1 Tamil Nadu 6 2 0 4 0 1 0 23 2.110 2 Karnataka 6 3 0 0 3 1 0 19 1.126 3 Uttar Pradesh 6 1 1 4 0 0 0 17 0.970 4 Baroda 6 2 2 1 1 1 0 15 1.019 5 Railways 6 1 0 1 4 0 0 12 0.863 6 Maharashtra 6 0 3 2 1 0 0 7 0.731 7 Andhra 6 0 3 0 3 0 0 3 0.704 115