ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2015

On the domestic scene, Karnataka retained the Ranji Trophy by defeating Tamil Nadu in a splendid final worthy of the finest traditions of this famous tournament. It is true that the winning margin of an innings and 217 runs does not suggest a close match; but this conceals the fact that after Tamil Nadu had led off with a paltry 134 (Vinay Kumar 5-34), Karnataka were 84-5 with Lokesh Rahul having retired hurt at 16-0. The match was apparently anyone’s; but at this point Rahul returned, defying a hamstring injury, and added 386 for the sixth wicket with Karun Nair. Rahul made a painful but priceless 188, Nair contributed a little matter of 328, a record for a Ranji final (beating 319 by Gul Mohammad for Baroda against Holkar back in 1946/47), and Vinay Kumar, batting at nine, completed the misery of Tamil Nadu’s bowlers by adding an unbeaten 105 to his earlier bowling success. Karnataka’s eventual total of 762 meant a lead of 628 runs, but even in the face of this massive deficit, Tamil Nadu responded with a defiant 411 before finally succumbing to defeat. Rahul’s heroics in the Ranji final capped an outstanding season for him, in which his total of 1174 runs, at an imposing 97.83 average, headed the first-class aggregates despite his appearing in only seven matches. He had earlier hit 337 against Uttar Pradesh in a Group A game, and before that, in the Duleep Trophy final against Central Zone, he hit twin centuries only to finish on the losing side as South Zone, chasing 301 to win, collapsed from 252-3 and 280-6 to lose by 9 runs. Central Zone’s narrow win in the Duleep Trophy was effectively the curtain-raiser to the 2014/15 first-class season. It was followed by the group stage of the Ranji Trophy, which demonstrated once again the importance of points from drawn matches – especially a ‘winning draw’ – for a team that wishes to advance to the knockout stages. Group A, for instance, was dominated by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (the teams that eventually contested the Trophy final); they each won four of their eight matches and duly progressed. But the final qualifying place was grabbed by Mumbai, who had struggled throughout the campaign after beginning it with their first-ever loss to lowly Jammu and Kashmir since the latter became first-class in 1959/60. After being thrashed by an innings by Tamil Nadu in the sixth of the eight Group matches, Mumbai’s cause appeared hopeless; but the 40-time champions fought back with an outright defeat of Baroda followed by a winning draw against Karnataka. Even so, Mumbai finished the Group stage with only two wins but this proved to be just sufficient to allow them to progress (compare Uttar Pradesh, which also had two outright wins but no winning draws at all, and finished a lowly seventh in the Group). Delhi easily headed Group B with five wins. Maharashtra and – to the surprise of many – Vidarbha were the other qualifiers, both essentially on the strength of points accumulated from drawn games. Group C is significantly weaker than the other groups, and consequently sends only two sides, rather than three, into the knockouts. These berths were filled by Assam and Andhra, which were clearly the strongest teams in the Group in terms of wins (although Himachal Pradesh’s good results in drawn games almost allowed it to pip Andhra for the second place). As the knockouts began, Maharashtra eased past Andhra in a match of modest scores, and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu progressed at the expense, respectively, of Assam and Vidarbha by dint of first-innings leads in drawn games. Meanwhile Delhi demonstrated that impressive form at the Group stage counts for nothing in the knockouts as it comprehensively lost its quarter-final to lucky-to-qualify Mumbai. The latter seemed, as so often before, to be running into form at the right time; but hopes of yet another title evaporated in the semi-final when Karnataka’s Vinay Kumar took 6-20 and Mumbai were humbled for only 44. Such low scoring is a rarity indeed in Ranji knockouts; more typical is the other semi-final, in which Tamil Nadu went through on first-innings lead against Maharashtra in a match in which only 20 wickets fell in the five days. 88 India in 2014/15