The 85th edition of the prestigious domestic tournament – Ranji Trophy – will take off on the 1st of November 2018. As many as 17 matches involving 34 teams will commence on 1st November in the first round of matches.

There has been a slight change in the format for this season. As against participation of 28 teams in three groups in 2017/18, 37 teams in four groups (A,B,C,D)  will be taking part in the 2018/19 season.  Out of the nine additional teams Bihar is reentering the tournament. The other eight new teams are – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand. Consequent to this, the number of matches for this season has been almost doubled (160) as compared to 89 in 2017/18. Including Bihar, all other eight new teams will figure in Group D out of which the team which finishes at the top in the league stage will get qualified to play in the knock-out stage. Two teams finishing at the top in Group C will also qualify for the knockouts. The remaining five spots in the knockout will be taken from among the five teams which finish at the top combined from both Group A and B teams. The tournament will consist of 4 Quarter Finals, two Semi-Finals and – One Final which will be held from 2nd February. 

However, Karnataka is scheduled to start its sojourn in the second round commencing on 12th November against the defending champion Vidarbha. Karnataka is placed in Group A along with Baroda, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Railways, Saurashtra, and Vidarbha.

The total number of matches held so far in the Ranji Trophy tournament is 4622 out of which Karnataka’s share is 429 (won 194, lost 63 and drawn 172). Mumbai has the distinction of appearing in most matches 503 (only team to cross the 500 mark) as also registering most number of wins in the tournament. Mumbai has also won the RT title for a record number of 41 times. The next two places are held by Karnataka (8 times) and Delhi (7 times)

Teams which have played 400 or more matches in Ranji Trophy
Teams	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn
Mum	503	239	26	238
Del	441	184	58	199
TN	432	158	64	210
Knk	429	194	63	172
Hyd	406	140	76	190
Ben	406	153	66	187

Ranji Trophy Winners
Teams	Occasions
Mumbai	41
Karnataka	8
Delhi	7
Baroda	5
Holkar	4
Rajasthan	2
Maharashtra	2
Hyderabad	2
Bengal	2
Railways	2
Tamilnadu	2
Nawanagar	1
West India	1
Haryana	1
Punjab	1
UP	1
Gujarath	1
Vidarbha	1
Total	84

 

Karnataka as Winners in RT
Season	Opponents	Venue	Captain
1973/74	Rajasthan	Jaipur	EAS Prasanna
1977/78	U Pradesh	Mohannagar	EAS Prasanna
1982/83	Mumbai	Mumbai	BP Patel
1995/96	Tamilnadu	Chennai	A Kumble
1997/98	U Pradeah	Bangalore	RS Dravid
1998/99	M Pradesh	Bangalore	S Joshi
2013/14	Maharashtra	Hyderabad	R Vinay Kumar
2014/15	Tamilnadu	Mumbai	R Vinay Kumar

Overall records in Ranji Trophy                       

Most Runs
Runs	Player	Teams	Mat	Ave
10738	Wasim Jaffer	Mum/Vid	138	56.81
9202	AA Muzumdar	Mum/Asm/And	136	51.40
9201	DS Bundela	MP	145	45.32
8554	MA Manhas	Del/J&K	135	48.32
8059	HH Kanitkar	Mah	105	58.82

Most Wickets
Wkts	Player	Team	Mat	Ave
636	R Goel	Har	123	17.29
530	S Venkatraghavan	TN	96	18.21
479	SB Joshi	Kar	117	23.25
442	ND Hirwani	MP	92	23.64
437	BS Chandrasekhar	Kar	76	19.11

 

Most Matches
Mat	Player	Teams
145	DS Bundela	MP
138	Wasim Jaffer	Mum/Vid
136	AA Majumdar	Mum/Asm/And
135	MA Manhas	Del/J&K
126	RR Parida	Ori/Asm/Raj/Vid/HP

 

Most Hundreds
100s	Player	Teams	Mat
36	Wasim Jaffer	Mum/Vid	138
31	Ajay K Sharma	Del/J&K	88
28	HH Kanitkar	Mah	105
28	AA Muzumdar	Mum/Asm/And	136
27	AS Kaypee	Har	109

 

Highest Totals
Score	Teams	Opp	Venue	Season
944-6 d	Hyd	And	Secunderabad	1993/94
912-6 d	TN	Goa	Panaji	1988/89
912-8 d	Hol	Knk	Indore	1945/46
855-6 d	Mum	Hyd	Mumbai	1990/91
826-4	Mah	Kat	Pune	1948/49

  

Lowest Totals
Score	Teams	Opp	Venue	Season
21	Hyd	Raj	Jaipur	2010/11
22	S Pun	N Ind	Amritsar	1934/35
23	Sind	S Pun	Patiala	1938/39
23	J&K	Del	Srinagar	1960/61
23	J&K	Har	Rai	1977/78

 

 

Highest Individual Scores
Runa	Batsman	Team	Opp	Venue	Season
443*	BB Nimbalkar	Mah	Kat	Pune	1948/49
377	SV Manjrekar	Mum	Hyd	Mumbai	1990/91
366	MV Sridhar	Hyd	And	S’bad	1993/94
359*	VM Merchant	Mum	Mah	Mumbai	1943/44
359	SB Gohel	Guj	Ori	Jaipur	2016/17

                                                

Best innings Bowling effor
W-R	Bowlers	Team	Opp	Venue	Season
10-20	PM Chatterjee	Ben	Asm	Jorhat	1956/57
10-78	P Sunderam	Raj	Vid	Jodhpur	1985/86
9-23	AA Chavan	Mum	Pun	Mumbai	2012/13
9-25	S HyderAli	Rly	J&K	Delhi	1969/70
9-29	FM Shaikh	Goa	Ser	Delhi	2002/03

 

Most Catches
Cts	Mts	Player	Teams
187	137	Wasim Jaffer	Mum/Vid
128	136	AA Muzumdar	Mum/Asm/And
127	125	SB Bangar	Rlys
123	102	AS Chopra	Del/Raj/HP
107	79	SS Bhave	Mah

 

Most Dismissals
Player	Teams	Mts	Dis	Ct/St
VR Samanth	Asm/Mum/Tri	94	335	298/37
NV Ojha	MP	98	318	282/36
PR Shah	Bar	86	302	266/36
SD Jogiyani	Sau	96	299	261/38
M Rawat	Har/Rly	93	298	267/31