ACS Overseas FIrst-Class Annual 2012

V.A.Saxena, whose 257 was the third-longest first-class innings ever recorded in terms of time: spare a thought for Aushik Srinivas, whose figures of 85-27-192-4 tell their own story. Rajasthan’s eventual total of 621 proved far beyond their demoralised opponents, whose reply of 295 effectively conceded the title. Apart from serial Trophy-retainers Mumbai, the only sides to have mounted a successful defence are Maharashtra (1940/41), Delhi (1979/80), and Karnataka (1998/99); so now Rajasthan joins this illustrious company. The Ranji Trophy itself was the subject of considerable comment during the season on account of the large proportion of draws in recent times. Taking the 2011/12 competition as a case in point, of the 88 matches as many as 52 were drawn. A major factor in this is the point system at the league stage, which gives 5 points for an outright win but 3 points for a first-innings lead in a drawn game. A team that has secured a first-innings lead must often be tempted to ‘bank’ the points by settling for a draw when the reward for a win is only a further two points, plus the risk that forcing the game may lead to defeat, for which the points awarded will be zero. Whatever its cause, the high proportion of draws can lead to some perverse outcomes. In 2011/12, an example occurred in Elite Group A, which, as mentioned above, saw three teams tied on 16 points from their seven matches. Rajasthan, with two wins and five losing draws, prevailed over Saurashtra (also two wins) because of a superior quotient; but Uttar Pradesh had secured its 16 points with five winning draws and no outright wins at all. In fact, Rajasthan was indebted for its chance to progress in the competition, and ultimately to win it, solely to the bonus point gained in the final Group match against Orissa. But for this – in other words if the win against Orissa had been by a runs margin or by nine wickets or fewer – Rajasthan would have finished with only 15 points, one fewer than Saurashtra or winless Uttar Pradesh. By such a narrow margin did the champions secure their right to defend their title in the knockouts. Other Ranji leagues showed similarly strange results. The winners of Elite Group B, Tamil Nadu, and Plate Group A, Vidarbha, secured only one win each from six and five matches respectively; but thanks to points accumulated from winning draws they led their tables ahead of sides with two outright wins but fewer points from draws. Only in Plate Group B did the top team, Maharashtra, win as many as half its matches. Draws also dominated the Ranji knockouts. Neither Plate semi-final had a definite result, and one of them did not even reach a first-innings decision and had to be settled on run rate. In the quarter-finals of the Trophy proper, Rajasthan’s first-innings lead over Hyderabad has already been noted and the performances of Mumbai and Tamil Nadu against Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were not dissimilar. Only Haryana secured an outright win in a relatively low-scoring encounter with Karnataka. Haryana’s attack continued their form in the semi-final against Rajasthan, especially H.V.Patel, a right-arm fast medium bowler in his first first-class season, who took 8-34 in the first innings to follow 8-40 in the quarter-final. But this time he was eclipsed by the even lesser-known R.R.Singh, whose medium pace took 7-45 in the first innings and 12-82 in the match. The other semi-final was altogether a more typical Ranji knockout game as Tamil Nadu secured a large lead against Mumbai and never looked like relinquishing the advantage this gave them. And the final itself, of course, was yet another first-innings decision despite the allocation of five days to it. The preponderance of draws at all stages allowed Tamil Nadu to reach the Ranji final with only one win all season; thereby going one better over their achievement in 2010/11, when they likewise gained only one win but fell at the semi-final stage. The Ranji Trophy was followed, as usual, by the zonal knockout competition, the Duleep Trophy. After prevailing in closely-contested games in the quarter-final and semi-final, East Zone easily defeated Central Zone in the final. 114 India in 2011/12