1944–45 Ranji Trophy

The 1944–45 Ranji Trophy was the 11th season of the Ranji Trophy. Bombay won the title defeating Holkar in the final.

1944–45 Ranji Trophy

The Ranji Trophy
Administrator(s)	BCCI
Cricket format	First-class
Tournament format(s)	Knockout
Champions	Bombay (4th title)
Participants	17
Matches	16
Most runs	Rusi Modi (Bombay) (1008)[1]
Most wickets	C. S. Nayudu (Holkar) (33)[2]
← 1943–44 1945–46 →

Highlights

• Rusi Modi of Bombay scored 1008 runs in the season. He played five matches and averaged 201.60. No other batsman would score even 900 in a season until W. V. Raman made 1018 runs in 1988–89 by which time teams played more matches.^[3]

• Modi scored hundreds in each of the five matches. His scores were 160, 210, 245* & 31*, 113 and 98 & 151 in the final.^[4] He had scored 168 and 128 in the last two matches of the 1943-44 season, thus scoring hundreds in five consecutive innings and seven consecutive matches in Ranji Trophy.
• Modi's five centuries in a season was another record. As of 2021, only V. V. S. Laxman (eight hundreds in 1999–00), Kedar Jadhav (six in 2013–14) and Milind Kumar (six in 2018–19) have made more hundreds in a season.^[5]

• C. S. Nayudu of Holkar bowled 917 balls in the final, a record in all first class cricket.^[6][7]

Zonal Matches

West Zone

	Round 1				Round 2				Round 3
	9 Dec 1944 – Poona
	Maharashtra	372 & 363
					16 Dec 1944 – Poona
	Nawanagar	131 & 115
					Maharashtra	205 & 267
					Baroda	314 & 512/3
									27 Jan 1945 – Baroda
									Baroda	151 & 390
	3 Nov 1944 – Karachi
									Bombay	468 & 74/3
	Sind	264 & 244/4d
					30 Dec 1944 – Bombay
	Bombay	432 & 16/1
					Bombay	592/6d
	15 Dec 1944 – Ahmedabad
					Western India	188 & 92
	Gujarat	140 & 155
	Western India	224 & 271

North Zone

	Round 1				Round 2
	9 Dec 1944 – Lahore
	Northern India	358
					26 Jan 1945 – Lahore
	Delhi	52 & 86
					Northern India	449 & 298/7d
					Southern Punjab	293 & 92

East Zone

	Round 1				Round 2
	15 Dec 1944 – Jamshedpur
	Bihar	158 & 91
					18 Jan 1945 – Indore
	Holkar	389
					Holkar	538
	9 Dec 1944 – Calcutta
					Bengal	64 & 176
	Bengal	248 & 157
	United Provinces	176 & 154

South Zone

	Round 1				Round 2
	24 Dec 1944 – Madras
	Madras	188 & 233
					20 Jan 1945 – Madras
	Hyderabad	192 & 176
					Madras	363
					Mysore	78 & 159

Inter-Zonal Knockout matches

	Semi-finals				Final
	16 Feb 1945 – Bombay
	Bombay	620 & 58/0
					4 Mar 1945 – Bombay
	Northern India	363 & 312
					Bombay	462 & 764
	17 Feb 1945 – Madras
					Holkar	360 & 492
	Madras	254 & 158
	Holkar	403 & 11/0

Final

4–9 March 1945 Scorecard

Bombay (H)	v	Holkar
462 (160.5 overs) Rusi Modi 98 C. S. Nayudu 6/153		360 (117.5 overs) Mushtaq Ali 109 Dattu Phadkar 5/75
764 (256 overs) Vijay Merchant 278, Rusi Modi 151, Rusi Cooper 104 C. S. Nayudu 5/275		492 (155.1 overs) Denis Compton 249*, Mushtaq Ali 130 Madan Raiji 3/133

Bombay won by 374 runs Brabourne Stadium, Bombay Umpires: M. G. Bhave and T. A. Ramachandran

• Bombay won the toss and decided to bat
• Timeless match that lasted for six days

Scorecards and averages

• CricketArchive