ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2017

But, of course, Pujara’s stature as a world-class batsman was never in doubt; what was perhaps more striking was the dramatic advance of Priyank Panchal, who after several seasons of moderate achievement suddenly emerged as the leading Ranji run-getter with 1310 at 87.33 (1449 at 80.50 in all first-class matches). His success was a huge factor in Gujarat’s first Ranji title. Apart from Pujara and Panchal, three other batsman – Virat Kohli (1252), Abhinav Mukund (1140) and Parthiv Patel (1110) – also exceeded a thousand runs in all first-class matches. Mention must also be made of the 19-year-old Rishabh Pant of Delhi, who in his first full Ranji season hit 972 runs at a staggering rate of 107.28 per hundred balls, with no fewer than 49 sixes. Jharkhand’s slow left-armer Shahbaz Nadeem, with 56, was the only bowler to claim fifty victims in Ranji matches alone. In all first-class matches he took 61, and Pankaj Singh of Rajasthan (51) and Kuldeep Yadav of Uttar Pradesh (56) also exceeded fifty – the latter crowning his season by becoming the first left-arm wristspinner ever to earn a Test cap for India. But the leading bowlers by far, almost wholly on the strength of their Test performances (although Jadeja did play in the Duleep), were Jadeja and Ashwin with 81 and 82 wickets respectively. For 2017/18 the Ranji Trophy is to be reorganized. The unpopular experiment with neutral venues will be discontinued after just one season and the Trophy will involve four groups instead of three, the top two from each proceeding into the quarter-finals. (JCB) Abandoned Matches: Bengal v Gujarat, Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, 5,6,7,8 November. Smog. Hyderabad v Tripura, Karnail Singh Stadium, Delhi, 5,6,7,8 November. Smog. Duleep Trophy 2016/17: Final table P W L DWF DLF ND A BP Pts NetRR 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 India Red 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 7 -0.037 2 India Blue 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 4 -0.362 3 India Green 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.235 FINAL: India Blue beat India Red by 355 runs 93 India in 2016/17