ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2019

120 India in 2018/19 emerged from this demanding programme with an impressive record of seven wins, only one defeat and six draws. On the domestic front the most striking feature of Indian cricket in 2018/19 was the enormous and unprecedented number of 174 first-class matches during the season. Not only was this the largest total in Indian history (easily beating the previous record of 142 in 2016/17); it was the most ever to take place in a single season in any country other than England. The increase resulted from a major reorganization of the Ranji Trophy after the BCCI decided that all of the country’s states should be represented. This raised the number of Ranji teams from 28 to 37, a change accommodated by establishing two nine-team ‘elite’ Groups A and B, placing the other ten existing sides in Group C, and creating a Plate for the nine new teams. One team would qualify for the quarter-finals from the Plate and two from Group C; the two top Groups would qualify five teams between them. In Group A as many as five teams claimed three outright wins but with no one exceeding this number, the Group was very tight at the top and exact placings turned on points gained from first- innings leads in drawn games (i.e. the ‘winning draw’, so often a critical factor at the Ranji group stage), eked out in some cases by the bonus point awarded for wins without losing a second-innings wicket. Vidarbha, traditionally one of the Trophy’s Cinderella sides but now defending champions, topped Group A, separated only by net run rate from second-place Saurashtra. Both these sides avoided outright defeat as did Gujarat, which also gained three outright wins but benefited from only one winning draw and as a result found itself in fourth place behind Karnataka. This was yet another side with three wins but in this case, two defeats; crucially, though, it had three winning draws. Fifth place was taken by the final side with three wins, Baroda, while no one else claimed more than a single win. Among the lower-placed sides, 41-time Trophy winners Mumbai endured a season to forget, while Chhattisgarh, in last place, will be relegated to Group C next season. Group B turned out to be exceptionally evenly matched, with each team securing at least one outright win, while no one escaped defeat and no side had a surplus of wins over defeats greater than one. The nine teams were bunched in a relatively narrow band between Kerala (four wins, three defeats) at the top with 26 points and Delhi (one win, three defeats) at the bottom with 14. The upshot was that of the five teams that had the best record and went forward from the two Groups, four were from Group A and only one, leaders Kerala, from Group B. At the wrong end of Group B, meanwhile, Delhi’s relegation was a notable fall from grace for a side that has won the Trophy seven times, and reached the final as recently as last season. Group C was altogether more open. Rajasthan easily headed the group with seven outright wins and two winning draws; while Uttar Pradesh narrowly edged out Jharkhand for the second qualifying place. Apart from progressing to the quarter-finals, these two sides will be promoted to the elite Groups next season. The 2018/19 Plate, essentially a newly-inaugurated competition with all its nine teams fresh to first- class cricket, proved to be relatively open and exciting notwithstanding some serious reservations about the overall standard of play. With six wins apiece from their eight matches, Uttarakhand and Bihar were clearly the best sides (Bihar being effectively a new first-class side, despite its familiar name, because the original Bihar Cricket Association reinvented itself as Jharkhand with effect from the 2004/05 season). Uttarakhand finally emerged as Plate Champions, thus earning quarter-final qualification and, for 2019/20, a place in Group C. The Ranji Trophy is structured on the assumption that Group C and the Plate are of a lower standard than Groups A and B, and the quarter-final stage suggested that this is indeed the case. The two qualifiers from Group C, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and Plate Champions Uttarakhand, all fell to Group A opponents, respectively Karnataka (third in Group A), Saurashtra (second) and Vidarbha (first). In the fourth quarter-final Kerala (first in Group B) comfortably beat Gujarat (fourth in Group A) in a low-scoring encounter. They thus reached the semi-final for the first time in their history, only to succumb by an innings to Vidarbha (Umesh Yadav 12-79). In the other semi-final Karnataka looked like progressing until Saurashtra, thanks to a fourth-wicket stand of 214 by Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson, unexpectedly played the highest innings of the match to reach a testing victory target of 279.