ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2016

India in 2015/16 The Indian Test side had every right to feel highly satisfied with its efforts in 2015/16 and 2016: it played two four-Test rubbers, one at home against South Africa and the other in the Caribbean (see the ‘Matches in 2016’ section for the latter). On both occasions, India thoroughly outclassed its opponents. South Africa had arrived in India boasting a proud record of not having lost an overseas rubber since their 2-0 defeat in Sri Lanka as long ago as 2006. It mattered not. Throughout the rubber the South African batting line-up, so impressive on paper, demonstrated a woeful lack of application and technique against the sharply turning ball on dry, dusty pitches. South Africa’s only total above 200 was in the rain-ruined draw at Kanpur; over the rubber as a whole, Ravi Ashwin (31 wickets at 11.12) and Ravindra Jadeja (23 at 10.82) carried all before them. The South African batting averages told an even more remarkable tale: A.B.de Villiers, with a mediocre record of 258 runs at 36.85 with two fifties, stood out by himself; no one else averaged above 20 or managed a fifty. The home batsmen, by contrast, although not producing mammoth scores (Ajinkya Rahane’s twin tons at Delhi were the only hundreds of the rubber), did all that was required of them to ensure a comprehensive 3-0 victory in a rubber in which the initiative lay with the bowlers almost throughout. Nothing better summarized the hopelessness and strokelessness of South Africa’s batting than the astonishing blockathon in the final innings of the rubber at Delhi: by that stage, not only was South Africa’s unbeaten away record a thing of the past; it was also clear that morale of the side was at rock bottom and that its Test ranking was also on a sharply downward trajectory. One might argue, as indeed the South Africans did, that the pitches were a paradise for India’s spinners. But it was fair for Virat Kohli to respond that no one mentions pitches when India travel abroad to be confronted by the seaming or swinging ball; and he could legitimately have added that a side with pretensions to be the world’s best ought to be able to cope with a wide range of conditions. India certainly demonstrated an ability to travel when they played West Indies in July and August 2016. Admittedly a tour of the Caribbean is no longer the uniquely daunting prospect that it once was; but India’s two thumping wins in the first and third Tests were nevertheless impressive, and Ashwin again excelled, this time with bat as well as ball. The other two Tests were drawn (one of them another near-total washout) so India went through 2015/16 and 2016 unbeaten and rose rapidly up the Test rankings. From fifth place at the end of the 2015 season, India reached top position for four weeks in January and February and again for a few days in August, but at the end of the 2016 season found themselves in second place, a whisker behind old rivals Pakistan. It is worth taking a moment to contemplate the performances of Ravi Ashwin in the 2015/16 and 2016 seasons. Appearing in all eight Tests, two of which were virtual washouts, he took a remarkable 48 wickets at an average of only 15.39; not content with which, in West Indies he made two hundreds and headed the batting averages as well as the bowling. By the end of the 2016 season, in only 36 Tests, he had 193 wickets at 25.20 (to say nothing of four centuries), and still he seems to be getting better all the time. On the domestic scene, the Ranji Trophy group stage took place amid controversy about the preparation of pitches. A number of matches came to a very early finish, some within two days, on pitches that favoured spin; yet the competition also suffered from the more traditional problem of very slow and sluggish pitches, and of the 108 games at the group stage, 51 ended in draws. Despite all this, the group stage was keenly fought. Two teams emerged as clearly the best in their respective groups. Mumbai, as befits the side that has dominated this tournament over the years, comfortably headed Group B with a record including one of the matches of the season, when they overcame a 140-run deficit against Tamil Nadu to snatch a thrilling one-wicket win. Meanwhile, Saurashtra, despite an unexpected reverse against Kerala, was clearly the pick of the (supposedly) weaker Group C, from which only two sides qualify compared with three from each 91