ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2019

121 India in 2018/19 The final was evenly contested on first innings with only 5 runs separating the sides, and after Vidarbha’s moderate second innings Saurashtra must have felt that the victory target of 206 was well within reach. But the left-arm spin of Aditya Sarwate claimed 6-59 (11-157 in the match) and Vidarbha came out winners by 78 runs to retain the coveted Trophy. For good measure they rounded off their season by taking a handsome first-innings lead against the Rest of India in the Irani Cup, but 180* by the Rest’s Hanuma Vihari (to go with his 114 in the first innings) ensured a draw. The domestic season had begun with the Duleep Trophy, contested between select sides labelled Green, Blue and Red. The league stage yielded nothing but draws, leaving Green to be eliminated through having failed to secure any first-innings leads. At least the final provided a definite result, Blue trouncing Red by an innings. Over the first-class season as a whole, the leading run-scorer was Milind Kumar, whose tally of 1331 at 121.00 was perhaps less formidable than it sounds. After 29 appearances for Delhi going back to 2011/12, during which he had aggregated 1208 runs at a modest 30.20 with two centuries, he had transferred to new boys Sikkim and in a single season more than doubled his career total of runs and hit no fewer than six additional centuries. In all the circumstances, greater merit must attach to the 1164 runs (at 58.20) recorded by Gujarat’s Priyank Panchal and the 1131 (at 80.78) of Abhimanyu Easwaran of Bengal. The leading run-scorer of champions Vidarbha, and only other batsman to exceed a thousand, was Wasim Jaffer with 1037 at 69.13, not bad at all for a 40-year-old veteran who played the last of his 31 Tests as long ago as 2007/08. Saurab Kuman of Uttar Pradesh (left-arm slow) headed the wicket-takers with 70 at 18.15. But he was closely followed by Ashutosh Aman of Bihar, whose figures, like Milind Kumar’s batting performance, raised grave doubts about the quality of cricket in the Plate. A slow-left-arm bowler, new to first-class cricket at the age of 32, he claimed ten or more wickets in five of his eight matches, and his 68 wickets came at the freakish average of only 6.48. Aditya Sarwate of champions Vidarbha, yet another slow left-armer, came third with 66 at 21.39 and five other bowlers also claimed over fifty wickets during the season. (JCB) Duleep Trophy 2018/19: Final table P W L DWF DLF ND BP Pts NetRRN 6 0 3 1 1 1 India Red 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 6 -0.028 2 India Blue 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 4 0.093 3 India Green 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 -0.062 FINAL: India Blue beat India Red by an innings and 187 runs Ranji Trophy 2018/19: Final tables Group A P W L DWF DLF ND A BP Pts NetRRN 6 0 3 1 1 1 1 Vidarbha 8 3 0 2 3 0 0 2 29 0.212 2 Saurashtra 8 3 0 3 2 0 0 0 29 -0.177 3 Karnataka 8 3 2 3 0 0 0 0 27 0.153 4 Gujarat 8 3 0 1 4 0 0 1 26 0.113 5 Baroda 8 3 1 2 2 0 0 0 26 0.129 6 Mumbai 8 1 2 3 2 0 0 0 17 0.163 7 Railways 8 1 4 2 1 0 0 1 14 -0.212 8 Maharashtra 8 0 4 2 2 0 0 0 8 -0.031 9 Chhattisgarh 8 0 4 1 3 0 0 0 6 -0.377