2019–20 Ranji Trophy

The 2019–20 Ranji Trophy was the 86th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament in India.^[1] It took place between December 2019 and March 2020.^[2][3] Chandigarh competed in the Ranji Trophy for the first time.^[4] Vidarbha were the defending champions.^[5][6]

2019–20 Ranji Trophy

The Ranji Trophy, awarded to the winners
Dates	9 December 2019 – 13 March 2020
Administrator(s)	BCCI
Cricket format	First-class cricket
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin then knockout
Host(s)	India
Champions	Saurashtra (1st title)
Participants	38
Matches	169
Most runs	Rahul Dalal (1,340) (Arunachal Pradesh)
Most wickets	Jaydev Unadkat (67) (Saurashtra)
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

In the opening round of fixtures, Vidarbha's Wasim Jaffer became the first cricketer to play in 150 matches in the Ranji Trophy.^[7][8] In January 2020, in the round seven match between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh's Ravi Yadav became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in his first over on his debut in a first-class cricket match.^[9] On 12 February 2020, the Plate Group fixture between Chandigarh and Manipur was the 60,000th first-class cricket match to be played.^[10][11]

Ahead of the final round of group stage matches, Gujarat, Saurashtra and Andhra had qualified for the quarter-finals, with fourteen teams in contention for the remaining five places.^[12] Goa qualified from the Plate Group, after beating Mizoram inside two days.^[13] Following the final group stage games, Bengal from Group A,^[14] Karnataka from Group B,^[15] Jammu & Kashmir from Group C,^[16] and Odisha, also from Group C, had all qualified for the quarter-finals.^[17] Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka and Saurashtra all progressed from the quarter-finals to the semi-finals of the tournament.^[18]

Bengal reached the final for the first time since the 2006–07 tournament, after beating Karnataka by 174 runs.^[19] Saurashtra beat Gujarat by 92 runs to advance to the final for the fourth time in the last eight seasons.^[20] The final finished in a draw, with Saurashtra winning their maiden title, with a lead in the first innings of the match.^[21][22]

Format

The tournament retained the same format as the previous edition of the competition.^[23] The tournament had four groups, with nine teams each in Groups A, B, and ten teams in Group C and the Plate Group. The top two teams from Group C and the top team in the Plate Group progressed to the quarter-finals of the tournament, along with the top five teams across Groups A and B.^[24] A neutral curator was appointed to select the wicket for each fixture.^[25]

In July 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) considered the use of the Decision Review System (DRS) for matches in the knockout section of the tournament.^[26] The BCCI agreed to use a "limited DRS" system, which does not use Hawk-Eye and UltraEdge.^[27]

Player transfers

The following player transfers were approved ahead of the season. The new team, Chandigarh, transferred few players from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.^[28]

Player	From	To
Stuart Binny[29]	Karnataka	Nagaland
Unmukt Chand[30]	Delhi	Uttarakhand
C. M. Gautam[31]	Karnataka	Goa
Arun Karthik[32]	Kerala	Pondicherry
Abrar Kazi[33]	Nagaland	Mizoram
Milind Kumar[34]	Sikkim	Tripura
Vinay Kumar[35]	Karnataka	Pondicherry
Shrikant Mundhe[36]	Maharashtra	Nagaland
K. B. Pawan[33]	Nagaland	Mizoram
Malolan Rangarajan[37]	Uttarakhand	Tamil Nadu
Rahil Shah[38]	Tamil Nadu	Uttarakhand
Yashpal Singh[39]	Manipur	Sikkim
Dwaraka Ravi Teja[40]	Andhra	Meghalaya
Robin Uthappa[41]	Saurashtra	Kerala

Teams

The teams were placed in the following groups, based on their performance from the previous edition. Chandigarh competed in the tournament for the first time.^[42][43]

Group A Andhra Bengal Delhi Gujarat Hyderabad Kerala Punjab Rajasthan Vidarbha

Group B Baroda Himachal Pradesh Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Mumbai Railways Saurashtra Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh

Group C Assam Chhattisgarh Haryana Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Maharashtra Odisha Services Tripura Uttarakhand

Plate Group Arunachal Pradesh Bihar Chandigarh Goa Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Pondicherry Sikkim

League stage

Group A Pos Team v t e Pld W L D T NR Pts Quot 1 Gujarat 8 5 0 3 0 0 35 1.235 2 Bengal 8 4 1 3 0 0 32 1.470 5 Andhra 8 4 2 2 0 0 27 1.175 6 Punjab 8 3 3 2 0 0 24 1.280 7 Vidarbha 8 2 2 4 0 0 21 1.159 8 Delhi 8 2 1 5 0 0 21 1.007 12 Rajasthan 8 2 4 2 0 0 17 0.842 17 Kerala 8 1 5 2 0 0 10 0.772 18 Hyderabad 8 1 6 1 0 0 7 0.509   Top five teams across Groups A and B advance to the knockout stage.   Bottom two teams across Groups A and B relegated to the Elite Group C for the next season.

Group B Pos Team v t e Pld W L D T NR Pts Quot 3 Karnataka 8 4 0 4 0 0 31 1.042 4 Saurashtra 8 3 1 4 0 0 31 1.239 9 Tamil Nadu 8 2 2 4 0 0 20 1.146 10 Uttar Pradesh 8 2 1 5 0 0 20 1.093 11 Himachal Pradesh 8 2 1 5 0 0 19 0.987 13 Mumbai 8 1 2 5 0 0 17 1.195 14 Railways 8 1 4 3 0 0 16 0.864 15 Baroda 8 2 4 2 0 0 14 0.670 16 Madhya Pradesh 8 0 2 6 0 0 12 0.888   Top five teams across Groups A and B advance to the knockout stage.   Bottom two teams across Groups A and B relegated to the Elite Group C for the next season.

Group C Team v t e Pld W L D T NR Pts Quot Jammu & Kashmir 9 6 1 2 0 0 39 1.467 Odisha 9 5 2 2 0 0 38 1.214 Haryana 9 5 2 2 0 0 36 1.272 Services 9 5 2 2 0 0 36 1.042 Maharashtra 9 5 3 1 0 0 34 1.105 Jharkhand 9 3 3 3 0 0 24 0.916 Chhattisgarh 9 2 2 5 0 0 23 1.342 Assam 9 1 4 4 0 0 15 0.714 Tripura 9 0 6 3 0 0 9 0.820 Uttarakhand 9 0 7 2 0 0 2 0.536   Top two teams advances to the knockout stage and are promoted to the Elite Groups A and B for the next season.   Bottom ranked team is relegated to the Plate Group for the next season.

Plate Group Team v t e Pld W L D T NR Pts Quot Goa 9 7 0 2 0 0 50 2.343 Pondicherry 9 7 1 1 0 0 48 2.336 Chandigarh 9 4 0 5 0 0 43 3.498 Meghalaya 9 5 3 1 0 0 34 1.302 Bihar 9 3 1 5 0 0 30 1.191 Nagaland 9 2 3 4 0 0 19 0.765 Manipur 9 2 7 0 0 0 12 0.397 Mizoram 9 1 6 2 0 0 12 0.424 Sikkim 9 1 5 3 0 0 11 0.705 Arunachal Pradesh 9 0 6 3 0 0 3 0.458   Top team advances to the knockout stage and gets promoted to Elite Group C for the next season.

Knockout stage

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

A1

Gujarat

602/8d & 199/6d

P1

Goa

173 & 164

A1

Gujarat

252 & 234

B2

Saurashtra

304 & 274

B2

Saurashtra

419 & 426

A3

Andhra

136 & 149/4

B2

Saurashtra

425 & 105/4

A2

Bengal

381

B1

Karnataka

206 & 316

C1

Jammu & Kashmir

192 & 163

B1

Karnataka

122 & 177

A2

Bengal

312 & 161

A2

Bengal

332 & 373

C2

Odisha

250 & 39/0

Quarter-finals

20–24 February 2020 1st Quarter-final Scorecard

Gujarat	v	Goa
602/8d (161.3 overs) Parthiv Patel 124 (172) Felix Alemao 3/86 (28 overs)		173 (57.5 overs) Amit Verma 56 (87) Chintan Gaja 5/19 (13.5 overs)
199/6d (64.2 overs) Samit Gohel 72 (151) Lakshay Garg 4/30 (11 overs)		164 (66.4 overs) Suyash Prabhudessai 66 (135) Siddharth Desai 5/81 (19.4 overs)

Gujarat won by 464 runs Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium, Valsad Umpires: Chirra Ravikanthreddy and C. K. Nandan Player of the match: Roosh Kalaria (Gujarat)

• Gujarat won the toss and elected to bat.

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20–24 February 2020 2nd Quarter-final Scorecard

Bengal	v	Odisha
332 (96.5 overs) Anustup Majumdar 157 (239) Basant Mohanty 4/53 (25.5 overs)		250 (102.1 overs) Debasish Samantray 68 (145) Nilkantha Das 3/43 (21 overs)
373 (138 overs) Shreevats Goswami 78 (134) Govinda Poddar 3/95 (31 overs)		39/0 (10 overs) Anurag Sarangi 24* (39)

Match drawn DRIEMS Ground, Cuttack Umpires: Sai Darshan Kumar and Abhijit Deshmukh Player of the match: Anustup Majumdar (Bengal)

• Odisha won the toss and elected to field.
• Kanwar Singh Chohan (Odisha) made his first-class debut.
• Bengal advanced to the semi-finals due to a first-innings lead.^[44]

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20–24 February 2020 3rd Quarter-final Scorecard

Karnataka	v	Jammu & Kashmir
206 (69.1 overs) Krishnamurthy Siddharth 76 (189) Parvez Rasool 3/36 (12.1 overs)		192 (62.4 overs) Shubham Khajuria 62 (155) Prasidh Krishna 4/42 (11.4 overs)
316 (106.5 overs) Krishnamurthy Siddharth 98 (177) Abid Mushtaq 6/83 (34.5 overs)		163 (44.4 overs) Shubham Pundir 31 (59) Krishnappa Gowtham 7/54 (18.4 overs)

Karnataka won by 167 runs Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground, Jammu Umpires: Ulhas Gandhe and Pashchim Pathak Player of the match: Krishnamurthy Siddharth (Karnataka)

• Karnataka won the toss and elected to bat.
• Only six overs were bowled on day 1 and no play was possible on day 2 due to rain.

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20–24 February 2020 4th Quarter-final Scorecard

Saurashtra	v	Andhra
419 (146.5 overs) Chirag Jani 121 (297) Prithvi Raj 3/51 (20 overs)		136 (68.2 overs) Chengalpet Gnaneshwar 43 (166) Jaydev Unadkat 4/42 (18.2 overs)
426 (138 overs) Prerak Mankad 85 (116) Jyothi Krishna 4/74 (28 overs)		149/4 (51 overs) Srikar Bharat 55* (69) Prerak Mankad 2/8 (7 overs)

Match drawn CSR Sharma College Ground, Ongole Umpires: Nitin Pandit and Vineet Kulkarni Player of the match: Chirag Jani (Saurashtra)

• Andhra won the toss and elected to field.
• Saurashtra advanced to the semi-finals due to a first-innings lead.^[45]

Semi-finals

29 February – 4 March 2020 1st Semi-final Scorecard

Saurashtra	v	Gujarat
304 (127.4 overs) Sheldon Jackson 103 (204) Arzan Nagwaswalla 5/81 (29 overs)		252 (87.3 overs) Rujul Bhatt 71 (212) Jaydev Unadkat 3/86 (24 overs)
274 (98.4 overs) Arpit Vasavada 139 (230) Chintan Gaja 7/71 (23 overs)		234 (72.2 overs) Chirag Gandhi 96 (139) Jaydev Unadkat 7/56 (22.2 overs)

Saurashtra won by 92 runs Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot Umpires: Rohan Pandit and Sundaram Ravi Player of the match: Arpit Vasavada (Saurashtra)

• Gujarat won the toss and elected to field.

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29 February – 4 March 2020 2nd Semi-final Scorecard

Bengal	v	Karnataka
312 (92 overs) Anustup Majumdar 149* (207) Ronit More 3/52 (17 overs)		122 (36.2 overs) Krishnappa Gowtham 31 (24) Ishan Porel 5/39 (13 overs)
161 (54.4 overs) Sudip Chatterjee 45 (94) Abhimanyu Mithun 4/23 (16 overs)		177 (55.3 overs) Devdutt Padikkal 62 (129) Mukesh Kumar 6/61 (21 overs)

Bengal won by 174 runs Eden Gardens, Kolkata Umpires: Yeshwant Barde and Krishnamachari Srinivasan Player of the match: Anustup Majumdar (Bengal)

• Karnataka won the toss and elected to field.

Final

9–13 March 2020 Final Scorecard

Saurashtra	v	Bengal
425 (171.5 overs) Arpit Vasavada 106 (287) Akash Deep 4/98 (35 overs)		381 (161 overs) Sudip Chatterjee 81 (241) Dharmendrasinh Jadeja 3/114 (52 overs)
105/4 (34 overs) Avi Barot 39 (102) Shahbaz Ahmed 2/32 (14 overs)

Match drawn Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot Umpires: K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan, Chettithody Shamshuddin and Yeshwant Barde Player of the match: Arpit Vasavada (Saurashtra)

• Saurashtra won the toss and elected to bat.
• Sudip Kumar Gharami (Bengal) made his first-class debut.
• Umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin was injured on the first day of the final and was replaced by Yeshwant Barde.^[46]