2015–16 Ranji Trophy

The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy was the 82nd season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India. It was contested by 27 teams divided into three groups of nine teams each. The top three teams from Groups A and B advanced to the quarterfinals along with the top two teams from Group C. For this season the schedule splits into two stages, the first is a league stage and the second being a knock-out stage. The league stage starts on 1 October 2015 and ends on 4 December 2015 and the knock-out stage starts on 3 February 2016 and ends on 28 February 2016. The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy will be followed by the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Deodhar Trophy.^[1]

2015–16 Ranji Trophy

The Ranji Trophy, awarded to the winners
Dates	1 October 2015 (2015-10-01) – 28 February 2016 (2016-02-28)
Administrator(s)	BCCI
Cricket format	First-class cricket
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin then knockout
Host(s)	India
Champions	Mumbai (41st title)
Participants	27
Matches	115
Most runs	Shreyas Iyer (1321) (Mumbai)
Most wickets	Shahbaz Nadeem (51) (Jharkhand)
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The final was contested by Saurashtra and Mumbai, a repeat of the 2012–13 final.^[2] Mumbai won the match by an innings and 21 runs to claim their 41st title.^[3]

Personnel changes

Players

Player	From	To	Role
Sarfaraz Khan	Mumbai	Uttar Pradesh	Batsman[4]
Tashuk Ali	Himachal Pradesh	Mumbai	All rounder[4]
Pragyan Ojha	Hyderabad	Bengal	Spinner[4]
Wasim Jaffer	Mumbai	Vidarbha	Opening Batsman[4]
Sainty Pathak	Delhi	Haryana	Opening Batsman[5]
Mithun Manhas	Delhi	J&K	Batsman[4]
RP Singh	Uttar Pradesh	Gujarat	Seam Bowler[6]
Prasanth Parameswaran	Tamil Nadu	Goa	Seam Bowler
Amit Verma	Kerala	Assam	Batsman

Coaches

Coach	From	To	Role
Chandrakant Pandit		Mumbai	Coach [4]
Hrishikesh Kanitkar		Goa	Coach [4]
Dheeraj Jadhav		Goa	Asst. Coach [4]
Sairaj Bahutule		Bengal	Coach [4]
Lakshmipathy Balaji		Tamil Nadu	Bowling Coach
Rizwan Shamshad		Uttar Pradesh	Head Coach
Ajay Jadeja		Delhi	Head Coach

Teams

The groups drawn are as follows^[7]

Group A Assam Bengal Delhi Haryana Karnataka Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Vidarbha

Group B Andhra Pradesh Baroda Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Mumbai Punjab Railways Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh

Group C Goa Himachal Pradesh Hyderabad Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Kerala Saurashtra Services Tripura

Group A

Main article: 2015–16 Ranji Trophy Group A

Points table

Team[8]	Pld	W	L	D	A	WI	FI	Pts	NRR
Vidarbha	8	4	2	2	0	1	1	29	0.047
Bengal	8	2	0	6	0	0	5	28	0.110
Assam	8	3	2	3	0	1	2	26	–0.304
Delhi	8	3	1	4	0	1	1	25	0.215
Karnataka	8	2	1	5	0	1	3	24	0.336
Rajasthan	8	2	3	3	0	0	1	17	–0.313
Maharashtra	8	1	2	5	0	0	3	17	0.301
Odisha	8	1	3	4	0	0	1	12	0.016
Haryana	8	0	4	4	0	0	1	6	–0.406

•   Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.
•   Bottom placed team relegated to Group C for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

Group B

Main article: 2015–16 Ranji Trophy Group B

Points table

Team[8]	Pld	W	L	D	A	WI	FI	Pts	NRR
Mumbai	8	4	0	4	0	1	3	35	0.851
Punjab	8	3	2	3	0	1	2	26	0.045
Madhya Pradesh	8	3	2	3	0	1	1	24	–0.059
Gujarat	8	3	1	4	0	2	0	24	–0.092
Uttar Pradesh	8	2	1	5	0	0	2	21	–0.117
Tamil Nadu	8	2	2	4	0	0	1	18	–0.321
Baroda	8	2	3	3	0	2	0	17	–0.045
Railways	8	2	6	0	0	0	0	12	0.039
Andhra Pradesh	8	0	4	4	0	0	3	10	–0.459

•   Top three teams advanced to knockout stage.
•   Bottom placed team relegated to Group C for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

Group C

Main article: 2015–16 Ranji Trophy Group C

Points table

Team[8]	Pld	W	L	D	A	WI	FI	Pts	NRR
Saurashtra	8	5	1	2	0	1	0	36	–0.061
Jharkhand	8	4	2	2	0	0	0	31	0.093
Himachal Pradesh	8	3	1	4	0	1	0	30	1.201
Services	8	3	1	4	0	0	1	27	0.473
Kerala	8	2	2	4	0	0	2	25	0.589
Goa	8	1	1	6	0	0	1	18	–0.206
Jammu & Kashmir	8	0	3	5	0	0	0	9	0.870
Hyderabad	8	0	2	6	0	0	0	8	–0.330
Tripura	8	0	5	3	0	0	0	3	–0.760

•   Top two teams advanced to knockout stage and promoted to Group A and Group B respectively for 2016–17 Ranji Trophy.

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

A1

Vidarbha

151 & 139

C1

Saurashtra

375

C1

Saurashtra

353 & 24/0

A3

Assam

234 & 139

A3

Assam

323 & 101

B2

Punjab

137 & 236

C1

Saurashtra

235 & 115

B1

Mumbai

371

A2

Bengal

121 & 432

B3

Madhya Pradesh

348 & 560/9d

B3

Madhya Pradesh

227 & 361/5

B1

Mumbai

371 & 426

C2

Jharkhand

172 & 94

B1

Mumbai

416 & 245

Quarter-finals

1st Quarter-final

3–7 February Scorecard

Vidarbha	v	Saurashtra
151 (50.4 overs) Wasim Jaffer 41 (86) Jaydev Unadkat 5/70 (18.4 overs)		375 (112.4 overs) Sagar Jogiyani 130 (261) Umesh Yadav 5/81 (23 overs)
139 (68.1 overs) Wasim Jaffer 48 (78) Jaydev Unadkat 4/35 (16.1 overs)

Saurashtra won by an innings and 85 runs ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam Umpires: Saiyed Khalid and Chirra Ravikanthreddy Player of the match: Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra)

• Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.

2nd Quarter-final

3–7 February Scorecard

Assam	v	Punjab
323 (108 overs) Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad 121 (223) Siddarth Kaul 4/99 (31 overs)		137 (47.2 overs) Mayank Sidhana 80* (131) Arup Das 3/41 (15.2 overs)
101 (35.5 overs) Arup Das 31 (18) Barinder Sran 5/43 (15 overs)		236 (63.2 overs) Gurkeerat Singh 64 (55) Arup Das 8/83 (21.2 overs)

Assam won by 51 runs Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Valsad Umpires: Nitin Menon and Nitin Pandit Player of the match: Arup Das (Assam)

• Punjab won the toss and elected to field.

3rd Quarter-final

{{Test match| date = 3–7 February | team1 = Madhya Pradesh | team2 = Bengal | score-team1-inns1 = 348 (114.5 overs) | runs-team1-inns1 = Aditya Shrivastava 65 (142) | wickets-team1-inns1 = Veer Pratap Singh 5/76 (23 overs)

| score-team2-inns1 = 121 (45.2 overs) | runs-team2-inns1 = [[Swagato(Raka)] 48 (100) | wickets-team2-inns1 = Ishwar Pandey 4/45 (16 overs)

| score-team1-inns2 = 560/9d (160.3 overs) | runs-team1-inns2 = Harpreet Singh 139 (206) | wickets-team1-inns2 = Ashok Dinda 2/92 (32.3 overs)

| score-team2-inns2 = 432 (91.4 overs) | runs-team2-inns2 = Manoj Tiwary 124 (160) | wickets-team2-inns2 = Ishwar Pandey(Bunty) 4/93 (22.4 overs)

| venue = Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai | toss = Bengal won the toss and elected to field. | umpires = Anil Dandekar and Rajesh Deshpande | motm = Ishwar Pandey (Madhya Pradesh) | report = Scorecard | result = Madhya Pradesh won by 355 runs | notes = Chandrakant Sakure (Madhya Pradesh) made his first-class debut. }}

4th Quarter-final

3–7 February Scorecard

Mumbai	v	Jharkhand
416 (114.4 overs) Akhil Herwadkar 107 (217) Shahbaz Nadeem 5/140 (39 overs)		172 (71.5 overs) Kaushal Singh 43 (92) Akhil Herwadkar 3/26 (11 overs)
245 (63.1 overs) Shreyas Iyer 81 (106) Samar Quadri 5/62 (18.1 overs)		94 (42.4 overs) Shiv Gautam 27 (120) Jay Bista 5/16 (6.4 overs)

Mumbai won by 395 runs Srikantadatta Narasimha Raja Wadeyar Ground, Mysore Umpires: Abhijit Deshmukh and Navdeep Singh Player of the match: Akhil Herwadkar (Mumbai)

• Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat.
• Sufiyan Shaikh (Mumbai) made his first-class debut.

Semi-finals

1st Semi-final

13–17 February Scorecard

Assam	v	Saurashtra
234 (87 overs) Amit Verma 98 (241) Jaydev Unadkat 6/77 (26 overs)		353 (113.5 overs) Cheteshwar Pujara 126 (243) Krishna Das 3/80 (37 overs)
139 (39.1 overs) Syed Mohammad 39 (69) Jaydev Unadkat 5/45 (13 overs)		24/0 (3.1 overs) Sagar Jogiyani 23* (10)

Saurashtra won by 10 wickets Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara Umpires: Nand Kishore and Krishnamachari Srinivasan Player of the match: Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra)

• Saurashtra won the toss and elected to field.

2nd Semi-final

13–17 February Scorecard

Mumbai	v	Madhya Pradesh
371 (102.5 overs) Shreyas Iyer 90 (104) Chandrakant Sakure 5/137 (29.5 overs)		227 (92.1 overs) Naman Ojha 79 (189) Balwinder Sandhu 5/43 (21.1 overs)
426 (125.1 overs) Suryakumar Yadav 115 (199) Harpreet Singh 3/55 (17 overs)		361/5 (109 overs) Naman Ojha 113 (185) Bhavin Thakkar 1/3 (2 overs)

Match drawn (Mumbai won on 1st innings) DRIEMS Ground, Cuttack Umpires: K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan and Virender Sharma

• Madhya Pradesh won the toss and elected to field.
• Jagdeep Baweja (Madhya Pradesh) made his first-class debut.
• Mumbai progressed to the final due to the first innings lead.^[2]
• Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai) became the fifth player to score 1,200 runs in a single Ranji Trophy competition.^[9]

Final

24–28 February Scorecard

Saurashtra	v	Mumbai
235 (93.2 overs) Arpit Vasavada 77 (214) Dhawal Kulkarni 5/42 (23 overs)		371 (82.2 overs) Shreyas Iyer 117 (142) Jaydev Unadkat 4/118 (25.2 overs)
115 (48.2 overs) Cheteshwar Pujara 27 (98) Shardul Thakur 5/26 (13.2 overs)

Mumbai won by an innings and 21 runs MCA Stadium, Pune Umpires: C. K. Nandan and Chettithody Shamshuddin Player of the match: Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai)

• Mumbai won the toss and elected to field.
• Prerak Mankad (Saurashtra) made his first-class debut.

Statistics

Batting records

Most runs

Player Name	Style	Team	Run
Shreyas Iyer	Right-handed Middle-order	Mumbai	1321
Akhil Herwadkar	Left-handed Opening	Mumbai	879
Arun Karthik	Right-handed Middle-order	Assam	802

High scores

Player Name	Style	Team	Run	Ground
Natraj Behera	Right-handed Opening	Odisha	255*	CH Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, Rohtak
Swapnil Asnodkar	Right-handed Opening	Goa	232	Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground, Jammu
Paras Dogra	Right-handed Middle-order	Himachal Pradesh	227	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala
Tashuk Ali	Right-handed Middle-order	Mumbai	220*	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharmshala

Most hundreds

Player Name	Style	Team	100s
Rajat Paliwal	Right-handed Middle-order	Services	4
Sudip Chatterjee	Left-handed Middle-order	Bengal	4
Shreyas Iyer	Right-handed Middle-order	Mumbai	4

Most fifties (and over)

Player Name	Style	Team	50+
Shreyas Iyer	Right-handed Middle-order	Mumbai	11
Harpreet Singh Bhatia	Left-handed Middle-order	Madhya Pradesh	8
Tashuk ali	Right-handed Middle-order	Mumbai	8

Most sixes in an innings

Player Name	Style	Team	50+	Ground
Ishan Kishan	Left-handed Opening	Jharkhand	8	Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground, Rajkot
Paras Dogra	Right-handed Middle-order	Himachal Pradesh	8	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala