ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2016

of the other groups. The remaining qualifying places were much more closely contested. Vidarbha ultimately headed Group A by only a single point over Bengal: the latter side had only two outright wins, compared with Vidarbha’s four, but demonstrated the enduring importance of the winning draw at the Ranji group stage. Assam was the remaining qualifier from this Group, together with Punjab and Gujarat from Group B (the latter separated from Madhya Pradesh only by the ‘quotient’) and Jharkhand from Group C. The defending champions, Karnataka, displayed inconsistent form and finished only fifth in Group A. Bengal, having attained second place in Group A with only two wins but five winning draws, lost a high-scoring quarterfinal to Madhya Pradesh. Assam overcame a spirited Punjab fight-back to reach the Ranji semifinals for the first time in its history, but then was comfortably beaten by Saurashtra, which had swept aside Group A champions Vidarbha in the quarterfinals. Saurashtra thus arrived in the final on the back of some impressive form. Its opponents would be the inevitable Mumbai, which had crushed Jharkhand in the quarterfinal before progressing on the strength of a first-innings lead in a high-scoring draw against Madhya Pradesh in the semifinal. Encouragingly, and in contrast to some recent years, this was the only knockout match not to reach a definite result. The Ranji final, then, matched serial Trophy-winners Mumbai against Group C qualifiers Saurashtra. The outcome disappointed romantics but surprised no one. Saurashtra, put in on a green pitch, were 108-7 but scrapped their way to 235. In reply. Mumbai were hugely indebted to the 21-year-old Shreyas Iyer, who confirmed his position as the domestic batsman of the season with a masterly display of controlled aggression on a pitch that was still far from easy. But even Iyer’s wonderful 117 did not seal the match for Mumbai: it was a sprightly 88 by Siddesh Lad, and in particular the 103-run last-wicket partnership that he shared with Balwinder Sandhu, that sealed Saurashtra’s fate and assured Mumbai of its 41st Ranji win out of the 82 times the Trophy has been contested (Karnataka is next with 8 wins). As Ranji champions, Mumbai had then to meet the Rest of India in the final domestic match of the season for the Irani Cup. As usual in recent years, the Rest side was of an experimental character and did not live up to its name. Nevertheless, the game was a classic: Mumbai, having raced to 603 and then dismissed its opponents for 306, could muster only 182 at the second attempt. Mumbai should still have won, but 127 by Vidarbha’s Faiz Fazal and useful contributions all down the order enabled the Rest to reach their improbable target of 480 with four wickets in hand. With the Duleep Trophy in abeyance, the only other matches in India in 2015/16 were two by Bangladesh A at the start of the season against Karnataka and India A (both won by the home side) and an Intercontinental Cup match between Afghanistan and Namibia, easily won by the former. Mumbai could claim the four leading batsmen in the season’s run aggregates. Far ahead of everyone was Shreyas Iyer, a right-hand batsman in his second first-class season, only 21 years of age, who made the number 3 slot his own. He struck 1414 runs at 67.33 with four centuries, including a crucial 117 in the Ranji final on a pitch that was never easy. His team-mate Surya Yadav was well back in second place with 993 runs. Mention should also be made of Paras Dogra of Himachal Pradesh, who in three successive matches in October and November scored 167 and 2*; 209*; and 227. This Bradmanesque streak brought him level with Ajay Sharma’s all-time record of seven double-hundreds in the Ranji Trophy. If the season’s leading run-scorer was a relative newcomer, the top wicket-taker was a much more familiar name: Ravi Jadeja, whose left-arm slows brought him 11, 13 and 13 wickets in his first three Ranji matches for Saurashtra, claiming at least five wickets in each of the six innings. Unsurprisingly, this form brought him a recall to the Test side, where he enjoyed continued excellent bowling form although it appears, at least on this season’s evidence, that despite the occasional useful knock his triple-century-hitting days may be behind him. In all first-class matches in 2015/16 he took 62 wickets at a remarkable 11.48: Krishna Das of Assam (53 at 18.49) and Shahbaz Nadeem of Jharkhand (51 at 19.62) were the only others to exceed fifty wickets. (JCB) 92 India in 2015/16